Influence of particle size, additive ratio and chemical structure of zinc borate on mechanical properties of poly(vinyl chloride)

Zinc borate (ZB) is a flame retardant and smoke supressant compound of boron. It is widely used to achieve flame resistant polymer composites. Poly(Vinyl Chloride) (PVC) is one of the commercially important polymers that is mostly used for cable insulating, windows, doors, pipes, floorings and toys etc.. On the other hand, PVC releases toxic gases during fire as decomposition products. Zinc borate addition is thought to be a solution for this problem. However, this solution leads a new problem. Zinc borate effects the mechanical properties of the PVC. In the present study, to optimize the contribution of zinc borate, with different formulations (2ZnO·3B2 O3·3.5H2 O and 4ZnO·B2 O3·H2 O), with different additive ratios (1% and 5% by weight) and different particle sizes (nano-sized and micro-sized) were added to the PVC structure and the mechanical and thermomechanical properties of each composite were investigated. Mechanical properties of composites were determined by tensile test, impact test, hardness test while thermomechanical behaviours were detected with dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). In the perspective of mechanical strength of PVC-ZB composite, additive ratio of ZB was more effective than particle size and chemical formulation of ZB. The additive ratio more than 5% by weight can negatively affect the mechanical strength and quality of the PVC-ZB composite.