A novel nitrogen-containing alkylphosphinate salt----aluminum β-(p-nitrobenzamide) ethyl methyl phosphinate (AlNP) was synthesized and used to flame retard acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer (ABS). The Fourier transform infrared spectrometry, ¹H, ¹³C and ³¹P nuclear magnetic resonance and X-ray fluorescent spectroscopy (XRF) were applied to characterize the structure and composition of products. The flame retardancy performance, thermal properties and mechanical strength of the ABS/AlNP with respect to AlNP loading were investigated. AlNP was stable before 330 ^oC and decomposed very slowly with residues high up to 56.1 % at 700 ^oC. Adding 25-30 wt% of AlNP alone can make ABS to pass V0 rating in the vertical burning tests (UL 94). The results according to the micro combustion calorimeter, thermogravimetric analysis showed that AlNP can depress the heating release and retard the thermal degradation of the ABS. Scanning electron microscopy observation for the residues from LOI test indicated that AlNP formed the condensed and tough residues layer during combustion; XRF analysis showed that the residues contained phosphorus and aluminum element and nitrogen element was not detected. The compact phosphorus/aluminium-rich substance acted as a barrier to enhance flame-retardant properties of the ABS.

  FTIR measurement was carried out using a Tensor 27 Bruker infrared spectrometer (Bruker, German) and operated at 4 cm^-1 resolution.

The X-ray fluorescent spectroscopy (XRF) analysis of the sample was done on pressed powder pellet of 4 cm in diameter. The operation was performed on a ZSX Primus II (Rigaku, Japan) XRF spectrometer.

Thermogravimetric (TG) measurement was performed with TSDT Q600 (TA, USA) under N₂ atmosphere   from 30 ^oC to 700 ^oC at heating rate of 20 ^oC min^-1, using alumina crucibles and sample mass of about 9-10 mg.     

 Micro combustion calorimetric measurement (MCC) was performed with a MCC-2 instrument (Govmark, USA). The powder sample (about 7 mg）was heated from 40 ^oC to 700 ^oC in an aluminum crucible with heating rate 1 ^oC s^-1. The heating atmosphere is a mixture of N₂ (flow rate 80 ml min^-1) and O₂ (flow rate 20 ml min^-1).

The glass transition temperature (Tg) was investigated with a Q-20 differential scanning calorimeter (DSC, TA, USA). The measurement was carried under N₂ atmosphere (flow rate 50 ml min^-1). The sample of 6-8 mg was used and heated from 30 ^oC to 250 ^oC at temperature rate of 10 ^oC min^-1.

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