Department of Chemical Engineering, Federal University of Santa Catarina
Along years flame retardant compounds have represented an excellent alternative to reduce flammability of organic polymers. A significant flame retardant efficiency was already reported in literature using halogen-based compounds, inorganic fillers, phosphorous-based compounds and synergic combinations. Although for some specific applications, flame retardancy is not the only special requirement. In many fields thermal properties are crucial to allow the use of an specific compound. The development of new materials with improved chemical and physical characteristics is desired constantly to supply raw material, which hold on extreme conditions imposed by industry. Intending to synthesize a new material with improved thermal properties and reduced flammability a combination between inorganic and organic molecules was performed. The main goal of this work was to obtain, after thermal treatment, a high performance material with singular characteristics. The advantage of this methodology is to synthesize in the same time a new material with improved thermal properties and flammability avoiding a subsequently step of flame retardant addition. Several authors synthesized new hybrid organic-inorganic compounds by numerous synthetic routes. In this work, commercial inorganic precursors and organic styrene monomer were reacted by two mechanisms, solution polymerization with free radical initiator and hydrosilylation assisted by metal catalyst. The hybrid organic-inorganic compound was characterized by Thermogravimetric Analysis, Differential Scanning Calorimetry and Flammability Analysis (UL94).
