Studies on the impact fracture behaviour of flame retardant polymeric material

Two commercial flame retardant (FR) additives, a brominated phosphate ester/antimony trioxide mixture and a magnesium hydroxide were added up to 30 and 60% by weight to polypropylene matrix, respectively. The impact behaviour of the PP/FR composites were studied by the Charpy impact test and the impact fracture toughness (Gc) measurement. As the amount of FR increases, the impact properties decreased accordingly. Such behaviour is strongly related to the morphologies and was investigated by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM).