Synergistically building flame retarding thermosetting composites with high toughness and thermal stability through unique phosphorus and silicone hybridized graphene oxide

Flame retardant, tough and heat-resistant thermosetting composites have been developed through building crosslinked network based on cyanate ester (CE) and unique hybridized graphene oxide (FGO) with phosphorus and silicone. The integrated performances of FGO/CE composites were studied and compared with those of graphene oxide (GO)/CE composites and CE resin. Attractively, with the same loading of fillers, FGO/CE composite has much better integrated performances than GO/CE composite, including not only flame retardancy, but also thermal stability, toughness and rigidity. Especially, the phosphorus content of FGO/CE composite is as low as 0.18 wt%, much lower than the necessary phosphorus concentration (1.1-7.8 wt%) for available phosphorus flame retardants. The origins behind attractive properties were intensively studied and found to be attributed to unique crosslinked structure induced by the presence of FGO.