Effect of zinc borate on enhancing flame retardancy of electron beam irradiated alumina trihydrate (ATH)/acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) composites

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effects of zinc borate loading level and electron beam irradiation dosages on flame retardancy and physico-mechanical properties of ATH-ABS blends. The increasing of irradiation dosage has gradually induced the gel content of all ATH-ABS blends by forming crosslinked networks. The addition of ATH and zinc borate has significantly increased the crystallinity of ABS blends as evident by the elimination of the hump on XRD curves. However, the application of lower electron beam irradiation dosages (£ 150 kGy) has slightly decreased the crystallinity of 0 phr and 20 phr zinc borate added samples. The increasing zinc borate loading level from 5 phr to 20 phr has gradually increased the flame retardancy of non-irradiated samples by inducing char formation. Besides, the increasing of irradiation dosage has significantly improved the flame retardancy of all samples. The addition of zinc borate up to 15 phr has effectively increased the tensile strength of all ATH-ABS blends by enhancing the interfacial adhesion between the ATH particles and ABS matrix. The increment of irradiation dosages up to 250 kGy has gradually increased the tensile strength by introducing the formation of crosslinking networks in ABS matrix.