Preparation and performance of lipophilic α-zirconium phosphate with high thermal stability and its application in thermal-plastic polymers

To prepare lipophilic α-zirconium phosphate with high grafting ratio and thermal stability（OZrP-HT） and explore its potential application in thermal-plastic polymers,a novel method was developed by surface lipophilicity enhancement strategy.The commercial a-zirconium phosphate（a-ZrP） was pre-intercalated by n-propylamine（PA） and grafted by silane coupling agents.Then the pre-intercalated PA was removed by heattreatment,and the obtained OZrP-HT was utilized to fabricate the phosphorous-containing polyester（P-co-PET）/OZrP-HT nanocomposites by melt-blending method.The prepared OZrP-HT and P-co-PET/OZrP-HT nanocomposites were characterized by Wide Angle X-ray Diffraction（WAXD）,Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy（FTIR）,Thermogravimetric Analysis（TGA）,Transmission Electron Microscope（TEM）,etc.The results show that OZrP-HT with high grafting ratio（13.78 wt%） and thermal stability(Tonset= 368℃) was successfully prepared via this novel method and was uniformly intercalated by P-co-PET molecular chains.OZrP-HT had no significant effect on the fiber processability of P-co-PET polymer,and flame retardant properties of（P-co-PET）/OZrP-HT nanocomposites were improved.This method may be suitable for organic modification of general inorganic layered compounds and could extend the potential applications in thermo-plastic polymers.