Preparation of novel biomass humate flame retardants and their flame retardancy in epoxy resin

Humic acid (HA), a biomass material with plentiful oxygen-containing functional groups, showed huge potential to be considered as a promising charring agent in flame retardancy. In this study, this HA was modified with four different metal ions like Fe²⁺, Mn²⁺, Al³⁺, and Cu²⁺ and finally, introduced into the epoxy resin (EP) to enhance the flame retardancy of the EP and the dispersion of these flame retardants into the EP matrix. When 10 wt% of HA-Fe and HA-Mn were incorporated into EP matrix, the limiting oxygen index (LOI) was increased from 21.2% for EP to 26.6 and 25.3% for the EP composites and the peak heat release rate (pHRR) was reduced by 36 and 35.5%, respectively. Such a significant improvement in flame retardancy was attributed to the catalytic charring of HA in the presence of metal ions, which ultimately increased the residual char formation and produced compact char layers during the combustion process to retard the transfer of heat and combustible gases between the EP composites and the flame zone. Finally, this kind of application provided a feasible way for the development of an environmentally friendly flame retardant with high efficiency, which improved the fire safety of EP matrix.