Improving flame retardancy and mechanical properties of halogen-free unsaturated polyester resin with diethylene glycol as comonomer

Unsaturated polyester resin (UPR) is a widely applied engineering material with drawbacks of high fire risks and brittleness. In this paper, low-cost diethylene glycol (DEG) was used as one of diols to react with saturated and unsaturated anhydrides for unsaturated polyester pre-polymers. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, gel permeation chromatograph were used for studying their structures and differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analysis (TG) for studying their thermal properties. Incorporated DEG comonomer improves limited oxygen index values of cross-linked UPR from 20 to 26% as the mole proportion of DEG increases from 0 to 50 mol% in diols. Combustion test indicates that the UPR sample with 70 mol% DEG in diols is self-extinguishing with none drop, referring to nonflammable burning grade. What is more, mechanical properties are also increased greatly by comparing with typical UPR base. Pyrolysis behaviors of UPR in nitrogen atmosphere suggest that the polyesters incorporated with DEG will produce more char and residues during the degradation process. By comparing the pyrolysis behaviors of UPR having DEG with those of UPR adding ammonium polyphosphate in TG curves, the flame-retarding mechanism of DEG incorporation is probably due to residual char forming in temperature range of 500–800 °C, which is close to the burning temperature. This study suggests that DEG element increases effectively and environmental friendly the fire safety of UPR materials.