Preparation and characterization of nano-zinc borate by a new method

A nano-flake-like zinc borate 2ZnO·2.2B2O3·3H2O was prepared via coordination homogeneous precipitation method using ammonia, zinc nitrate and borax as raw materials. X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermo gravimetric and differential thermal analysis (TG–DTA) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) techniques were used to characterize the products. The pilot study revealed that the products had excellent inflaming retarding effect for polypropylene (PP), the carbon residue ratio of PP increased to 75% when the product content was about 12 wt.%.