Flame retarded self-reinforced poly(lactic acid) composites of outstanding impact resistance

Impact resistant all-poly(lactic acid) composites were prepared by film-stacking of highly crystalline poly(lactic acid) (PLA) fibres with fully amorphous PLA films. The flammability of the self-reinforced PLA composites (PLA-SRCs) was effectively reduced by incorporating ammonium polyphosphate based flame retardant (FR) additive and montmorillonite clays in a weight ratio of 10 to 1 into the matrix layers. As low as 16 wt% FR content proved to be sufficient for achieving self-extinguishing behaviour, i.e. UL94 V-0 rating, and to achieve 50% and 40% reduction of peak of heat release rate and total heat emission, respectively. The introduction of FR additives improved also important mechanical properties compared to the FR-free all-PLA composite. The stiffness of the PLA-SRCs increased steadily with the FR contents of their matrix layers, furthermore, owing to the improved fibre-matrix bonding, prominent energy absorption capacity (impact perforation energy as high as 16 J/mm) was determined for the effectively flame retarded PLA-SRC.