Facile construction of lamellar-like phosphorus-based triazole-zinc complex for high-performance epoxy resins

Epoxy resins (EP) possessing superior flame retardancy, mechanical properties and glass transition temperature are urgently needed to meet the ever-increasing requirement of high performance for the practical application of EP. Herein, lamellar-like phosphorus-based triazole-zinc complex (Zn-PT) was firstly constructed through coordination reaction in a facile condition to address the above issue. The results revealed that Zn-PT was well dispersed in epoxy matrix, and with 3 wt% Zn-PT, the tensile strength, flexural strength and modulus of epoxy composites were remarkably increased from 71, 112 and 2982 MPa of neat epoxy resin (EP) to 80, 162 and 3482 MPa respectively. The glass transition temperature was higher than EP. Besides, the limiting oxygen index (LOI) increased to 28.3%, and UL-94V-1 level was available. Meanwhile, the cone calorimeter test (CCT) results showed that epoxy composites displayed less heat release and smoke production. Generally, this work provides a feasible strategy to prepare high-performance epoxy composites, which has the potential to satisfy the requirement of epoxy in the practical application.