Abstract:

High-performance fiber-reinforced polymer composite have been increasingly used as personnel protection system owning to their high strength and/ or stiffness to weight ratio and good damage tolerance. Amongst, ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) fiber/ thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), and aramid fiber (AF)/ epoxy (EP) are the most promising candidates in these applications for ballistic resistance. Due to the limited choice of fibers with sufficient protective and lightweight, the flammability of these polymers can become a big risk for lives in some cases, such as explosion. The inconsistence between flame retardancy and mechanical properties is always a key issue to develop the advanced polymer-based composite. Therefore, structural and component design are considered as efficient ways to solve the problems. The effort is put into investigating not only the effect of flame retardant on properties of polymer, but also the synergistic effect in the interfacial phase. With regarding to the inert surface of fiber, the interaction of fiber and matrix is also a concern to affect the mechanical properties. Achieving high-efficient flame retardancy and maintaining excellent mechanical properties are the objective in our work. Based on the fundamental materials, designing the chemical structure of flame retardant, tailoring the interfacial morphology, as well as the flame-retardant and protective mechanism are the focuses in this field.

Keywords:

High-performance polymer composite, flame retardancy, mechanical properties, energy-absorption