FLAME RETARDANT POLYCARBONATE COMPOSITIONS, METHODS OF MANUFACTURE THEREOF AND ARTICLES COMPRISING THE SAME
Disclosed herein is a flame retardant polycarbonate composition comprising 10 to 90 weight percent of a polycarbonate composition, a fibrous reinforcing and a flame retardant composition that comprises a phosphazene compound and a mineral filler synergist. In an embodiment, the polycarbonate composition comprises a first copolyestercarbonate copolymer and a second copolyestercarbonate copolymer, where the first copolyestercarbonate copolymer has a lower molecular weight than the second copolyestercarbonate copolymer. In another embodiment, the polycarbonate composition comprises a linear polycarbonate, a branched polycarbonate, or a combination of a linear and a branched polycarbonate. Disclosed herein too is a method of manufacturing the composition and articles that can be manufactured from the composition.
1 . A flame retardant polycarbonate composition comprising:
10 to 90 weight percent of a polycarbonate composition that comprises a polycarbonate;
5 to 60 weight percent of a reinforcing filler; where the reinforcing filler is a glass fiber, a carbon fiber, a metal fiber, or a combination comprising at least one of the foregoing reinforcing fillers; and
a phosphazene compound.
2 . The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 1 , where the polycarbonate comprises a linear polycarbonate homopolymer, a branched polycarbonate homopolymer, or a combination of a linear polycarbonate homopolymer and a branched polycarbonate homopolymer; and where the polycarbonate is present in an amount of 40 to 80 weight percent, based on the total weight of the flame retardant polycarbonate composition.
3 . The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 1 , where the polycarbonate composition comprises a copolyestercarbonate copolymer that comprises a polyester having repeat units derived from sebacic acid and a dihydroxy compound.
4 . The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 3 , where the polycarbonate composition further comprises a polysiloxane-carbonate copolymer that comprises 15 to 25 weight percent polysiloxane.
5 . The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 1 , where the flame retardant composition comprises 2 to 20 weight percent of a phosphazene compound and 0.5 to 10 weight percent of a flame retardant synergist.
6 . The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 3 , where the copolyestercarbonate copolymer comprises a first copolyestercarbonate copolymer that comprises a polyester that is copolymerized with a polycarbonate, where the polyester is derived from a reaction between sebacic acid and bisphenol A and the polycarbonate is derived from a reaction between bisphenol A and phosgene; and where the first copolyestercarbonate copolymer comprises 3 to 15 mole percent of a polyester derived from sebacic acid; and where the first copolyestercarbonate copolymer has a weight average molecular weight of 15,000 to 25,000 Daltons.
7 . The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 6 , further comprising a second copolyestercarbonate copolymer that is endcapped with para-cumyl phenol and comprises 7 to 12 mole percent of a polyester derived from sebacic acid; and where the second copolyestercarbonate copolymer has a weight average molecular weight of 30,000 to 45,000 Daltons.
8 . The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 1 , where the phosphazene compound has the structure:
where m represents an integer of 3 to 25, R 1 and R 2 are the same or different and are independently a hydrogen, a hydroxyl, a C 7-30 aryl group, a C 1-12 alkoxy, or a C 1-12 alkyl.
9 . The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 1 , where the phosphazene compound is phenoxy cyclotriphosphazene, octaphenoxy cyclotetraphosphazene, decaphenoxy cyclopentaphosphazene, or a combination comprising at least one of the foregoing phosphazene compounds.
10 . The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 1 , where the phosphazene compound has the structure:
where X 1 represents a —N═P(OPh) 3 group or a —N═P(O)OPh group, Y 1 represents a —P(OPh) 4 group or a —P(O)(OPh) 2 group, Ph represents a phenyl group, n represents an integer from 3 to 10000, R 1 and R 2 are the same or different and are independently a hydrogen, a hydroxyl, a C 7-30 aryl, a C 1-12 alkoxy, or a C 1-12 alkyl.
11 . The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 1 , where the phosphazene compound is a crosslinked phenoxyphosphazene.
12 . The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 1 , where the phosphazene compound has a structure:
where R 1 to R 6 can be the same of different and can be an aryl group, an aralkyl group, a C 1-12 alkoxy, a C 1-12 alkyl, or a combination thereof.
13 . The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 1 , where the phosphazene compound has a structure:
14 . The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 1 , where the glass fiber is a flat glass fiber, round glass, rectangular glass, glass with an irregular cross-section, long filament or chopped glass.
15 . The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 5 , where the flame retardant synergist is a mineral filler; where the mineral filler is mica, talc, calcium carbonate, dolomite, wollastonite, barium sulfate, silica, kaolin, feldspar, or a combination comprising at least one of the foregoing mineral fillers.
16 . The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 1 , displaying a flame retardancy of V-0, V-1, V-2, or 5VA at a sample thickness of 0.6 to 3.0 millimeters when tested per a UL-94 protocol; and a melt volume rate of 5 to 60 cubic centimeters per 10 minutes when measured as per ASTM D1238 at a temperature of 300° C. and a force of 2.16 kilograms.
17 . A method comprising:
blending 10 to 90 weight percent of a polycarbonate composition that comprises repeat units derived from sebacic acid and bisphenol A; 5 to 60 weight percent of a reinforcing filler; where the reinforcing filler is a glass fiber, a carbon fiber, a metal fiber, or a combination comprising at least one of the foregoing reinforcing fillers; and a flame retardant composition that comprises a phosphazene compound and a flame retardant synergist, where the flame retardant composition is effective to deliver to the flame retardant polycarbonate composition a probability of a first time pass of 0.10 to 0.199 per unit weight of the flame retardant composition at a sample thickness of at least 1.2 millimeters when tested as per the UL-94 protocol; and
extruding the flame retardant composition.
18 . The method of claim 17 , further comprising molding the composition.
19 . A flame retardant polycarbonate composition comprising:
10 to 90 weight percent of a polycarbonate composition that comprises a polycarbonate homopolymer and a polysiloxane-polycarbonate copolymer;
5 to 60 weight percent of a reinforcing filler; where the reinforcing filler is a glass fiber, a carbon fiber, a metal fiber, or a combination comprising at least one of the foregoing reinforcing fillers; and
a flame retardant composition that comprises a phosphazene compound and a flame retardant synergist, where the flame retardant composition is effective to deliver to the flame retardant polycarbonate composition a probability of a first time pass of 0.10 to 0.199 per unit weight of the flame retardant composition at a thickness of at least 1.2 millimeters when tested as per the UL-94 protocol.
20 . The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 19 , where the flame retardant composition comprises 2 to 20 weight percent of a phosphazene compound and 0.5 to 10 weight percent of a flame retardant synergist.
21 . The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 19 , where the polycarbonate composition comprises a linear polycarbonate, a branched polycarbonate, or a combination of a linear polycarbonate and a branched polycarbonate.
22 . The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 19 , where the polycarbonate composition is present in an amount of 40 to 60 wt %, based on a total weight of the flame retardant polycarbonate composition.
23 . The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 19 , where the polysiloxane-polycarbonate copolymer is present in an amount of 5 to 20 wt %, based on a total weight of the flame retardant polycarbonate composition, and where the polysiloxane-polycarbonate copolymer comprises 15 to 25 wt % of polysiloxane.
24 . The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 19 , where the phosphazene compound has the structure of formula (23)
where in the formula (23), m represents an integer of 3 to 25, R 1 and R 2 are the same or different and are independently a hydrogen, a hydroxyl, a C 7-30 aryl group, a C 1-12 alkoxy, or a C 1-12 alkyl.
25 . The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 19 , where the phosphazene compound is phenoxy cyclotriphosphazene, octaphenoxy cyclotetraphosphazene, decaphenoxy cyclopentaphosphazene, or a combination comprising at least one of the foregoing phosphazene compounds.
26 . The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 19 , where the phosphazene compound has the structure of formula (24):
where in the formula (24), X 1 represents a —N═P(OPh) 3 group or a —N═P(O)OPh group, Y 1 represents a —P(OPh) 4 group or a —P(O) (OPh) 2 group, Ph represents a phenyl group, n represents an integer from 3 to 10000, R 1 and R 2 are the same or different and are independently a hydrogen, a hydroxyl, a C 7-30 aryl, a C 1-12 alkoxy, or a C 1-12 alkyl.
27 . The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 19 , where the phosphazene compound is a crosslinked phenoxyphosphazene.
28 . The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 19 , where the phosphazene compound has a structure represented by the formula (26)
where R 1 to R 6 can be the same of different and can be an aryl group, an aralkyl group, a C 1-12 alkoxy, a C 1-12 alkyl, or a combination thereof.
29 . The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 19 , where the phosphazene compound has a structure represented by the formula (27)
30 . The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 19 , where the glass fiber is a flat glass fiber.
31 . The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 19 , where the flame retardant synergist is a mineral filler; where the mineral filler is mica, talc, calcium carbonate, dolomite, wollastonite, barium sulfate, silica, kaolin, feldspar, or a combination comprising at least one of the foregoing mineral fillers.
32 . The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 19 , where the flame retardant synergist is talc having an average particle size of 1 to 3 micrometers.
33 . The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 19 , displaying a flame retardancy of V-0 at a sample thickness of at least 1.2 millimeters when tested per a UL-94 protocol.
34 . The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 1 , displaying a flame retardancy of at least V-0 at a thickness of 1.2 millimeters when measured as per the UL-94 protocol and a melt viscosity of 15 to 30 cubic centimeters per 10 minutes when measured as per ASTM D1238 at a temperature of 300° C. and a force of 2.16 kilograms.
35 . A method comprising:
blending 10 to 90 weight percent of a polycarbonate composition that comprises a polycarbonate homopolymer and a polysiloxane-polycarbonate copolymer;
5 to 60 weight percent of a reinforcing filler; where the reinforcing filler is a glass fiber, a carbon fiber, a metal fiber, or a combination comprising at least one of the foregoing reinforcing fillers; and
a flame retardant composition that comprises a phosphazene compound and a flame retardant synergist, where the flame retardant composition is effective to deliver to the flame retardant polycarbonate composition a probability of a first time pass of 0.10 to 0.199 per unit weight of the flame retardant composition at a thickness of at least 1.2 millimeters when tested as per the UL-94 protocol; and
extruding the flame retardant composition.
36 . The method of claim 35 , further comprising molding the composition.
37 . An article manufactured from the composition of claim 1 .
38 . An article manufactured from the composition of claim 19 .