Flame retardant polycarbonate compositions, methods of manufacture thereof and articles comprising the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9394483-B2
Application number	US-201313901388-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 23, 2013
Priority date	May 24, 2012
Publication date	Jul 19, 2016
Grant date	Jul 19, 2016

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a flame retardant composition comprising 20 to 80 weight percent of a polycarbonate; 1 to 20 weight percent of a laser activatable additive; the laser activatable additive being operative to plate the flame retardant composition upon being activated by a laser; and 1 to 20 weight percent of a phosphazene compound; where all weight percents are based on the total weight of the flame retardant composition. Disclosed herein too is a method comprising blending 20 to 80 weight percent of a polycarbonate; 1 to 20 weight percent of a laser activatable additive; the laser activatable additive being operative to plate the flame retardant composition upon being activated by a laser; and 1 to 20 weight percent of a phosphazene compound to produce a flame retardant composition; where all weight percents are based on the total weight of the flame retardant composition; and extruding the flame retardant composition.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A flame retardant composition comprising:
20 to 80 weight percent of a polycarbonate composition; where the polycarbonate composition is selected from the group consisting of a linear polycarbonate, a branched polycarbonate, a combination of a linear and a branched polycarbonate, a blend of two polycarbonate homopolymers; a copolyestercarbonate, and a polysiloxane-polycarbonate polymer;
1 to 20 weight percent of a laser activatable additive; the laser activatable additive being operative to plate the flame retardant composition upon being activated by a laser; where the laser direct structuring additive is a copper chromium oxide spinel, a copper salt, a copper hydroxide phosphate, a copper phosphate, a copper sulfate, a cuprous thiocyanate, a spinel based metal oxide, a copper chromium oxide, an organic metal complex, a palladium/palladium-containing heavy metal complex, a metal oxide, a metal oxide-coated filler, antimony doped tin oxide coated on mica, a zinc containing metal oxide, a tin containing metal oxide, a magnesium containing metal oxide, an aluminum containing metal oxide, a gold containing metal oxide, a silver containing metal oxide, or a combination comprising at least one of the foregoing laser direct structuring additives; and
3 to 20 weight percent of a phosphazene compound; where all weight percents are based on the total weight of the flame retardant composition, where the composition when molded displays a flame retardancy of V-0 at a sample thickness of 0.6 millimeters when tested per a UL-94 protocol.

2. The flame retardant composition of claim 1 , further comprising a mineral filler in an amount of 1 to 10 weight percent based on the total weight of the flame retardant composition.

3. The flame retardant composition of claim 1 , comprising 3 to 5 weight percent of the phosphazene compound.

4. The flame retardant composition of claim 1 , where the polycarbonate composition comprises a polycarbonate having a weight average molecular weight of 15,000 to 40,000 Daltons.

5. The flame retardant composition of claim 4 , where the polycarbonate composition comprises a blend of two polycarbonate homopolymers one of which has a higher molecular weight than the other.

6. The flame retardant composition of claim 1 , further comprising 1 to 15 wt % of a pigment.

7. The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 1 , 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.

8. The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 1 , where the phosphazene compound is hexaphenoxy cyclotriphosphazene, octaphenoxy cyclotetraphosphazene, decaphenoxy cyclopentaphosphazene, or a combination comprising at least one of the foregoing phosphazene compounds.

9. The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 1 , where the phosphazene compound has the structure of formula (24) below:

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.

10. The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 1 , where the phosphazene compound is a crosslinked phenoxyphosphazene.

11. The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 1 , 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.

12. The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 1 , where the phosphazene compound has a structure represented by the formula (27)

13. The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 1 , further comprising a glass fiber; where the glass fiber is a flat glass fiber.

14. The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 2 , 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.

15. The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 1 , further comprising a flame retardant synergist; where the flame retardant synergist is talc having an average particle size of 1 to 3 micrometers.

16. The flame retardant polycarbonate composition of claim 1 , displaying an impact strength of greater than or equal to 900 joules per meter, when tested as per ASTM D 256 at 23° C.

17. A method comprising:
blending 20 to 80 weight percent of a polycarbonate; 1 to 20 weight percent of a laser activatable additive; the laser activatable additive being operative to plate the flame retardant composition upon being activated by a laser; where the laser direct structuring additive is a copper chromium oxide spinel, a copper salt, a copper hydroxide phosphate, a copper phosphate, a copper sulfate, a cuprous thiocyanate, a spinel based metal oxide, a copper chromium oxide, an organic metal complex, a palladium/palladium-containing heavy metal complex, a metal oxide, a metal oxide-coated filler, antimony doped tin oxide coated on mica, a zinc containing metal oxide, a tin containing metal oxide, a magnesium containing metal oxide, an aluminum containing metal oxide, a gold containing metal oxide, a silver containing metal oxide, or a combination comprising at least one of the foregoing laser direct structuring additives; and 3 to 20 weight percent of a phosphazene compound to produce a flame retardant composition; where all weight percents are based on the total weight of the flame retardant composition; and
extruding the flame retardant composition, where the composition displays a flame retardancy of V-0 at a sample thickness of 0.6 millimeters when tested per a UL-94 protocol.

18. The method of claim 17 , further comprising blending a mineral filler.

19. The method of claim 17 , further comprising molding the composition.

20. An article manufactured from the composition of claim 1 .

Assignees

• Sabic Innovative Plastics Ip
• Sabic Global Technologies Bv

Inventors

• Wu Tong
• Lin Yegang
• Li Ying

Classifications

• C08L69/005

  Polyester-carbonates · CPC title

• C09K21/14 Primary

  Macromolecular materials · CPC title

• C08L51/04

  grafted on to rubbers · CPC title

• C08L83/04

  Polysiloxanes · CPC title

• C08K7/02

  Fibres or whiskers · CPC title