The production of sustainable and effective flame retardant (FR) polyamide 6 (PA6) fibrous materials requires the establishment of a novel approach for the production of polyamide 6/FR nanodispersed systems. This research work explores the influence of three different flame-retardant bridged 9,10-dihydro-9-oxa-10-phosphaphenanthrene-10-oxide (DOPO) derivatives on the comprehensive properties of in situ produced PA6/FR systems. To this end, in situ water-catalyzed ring-opening polymerization of ε-caprolactam was conducted in the presence of three different bridged DOPO derivatives, e.g., one P−N bond phosphonamidate derivative and two P−C bond phosphinate derivatives. The selected bridged DOPO derivatives mainly act in the gas phase at the temperatures that relatively match the PA6 pyrolysis specifics. The effects of the FRs on the dispersion state, morphological, molecular, structural, melt-rheological, and thermal properties of the in situ synthesized PA6 were evaluated. The specific advantage of this approach is one-step production of PA6 with uniformly distributed nanodispersed FR, which was obtained in the case of all three applied FRs. However, the applied FRs differently interacted with monomer and polymer during the polymerization, which was reflected in the length of PA6 chains, crystalline structure, and melt-rheological properties. The applied FRs provided a comparable effect on the thermal stability of PA6 and stabilization of the PA6/FR systems above 450 °C in the oxygen-assisted pyrolysis. However, only with the specifically designed FR molecule were the comprehensive properties of the fiber-forming PA6 satisfied for the continuous conduction of the melt-spinning process.

The Diels-Alder reaction between N-phenylmaleimide and benzoxazine bearing furan group was investigated for the purpose of successful appliance of self-healing in benzoxazine polymer networks. The reaction as a function of temperature/time was performed in molten state and in a solution, where also the kinetic study was performed. The Diels-Alder reaction leads to a mixture of two diastereomers: endo presented at lower cyclo-reversion temperature and exo at higher. Therefore, the conversion rates and exo/endo ratio were studied in detail for both systems. For instance, in molten state the Diels-Alder reaction was triggered by the temperature of the melting point at 60 °C with exo/endo ratio preferable to the endo adduct. The study of the kinetics in a solution revealed that the Diels-Alder reaction followed typical bimolecular reversible second-order reaction. The activation energies were close to the previous literature data; 48.4 and 51.9 kJ·mol–1 for Diels-Alder reaction, and 91.0 and 102.3 kJ·mol–1 for retro-Diels-Alder reaction, in acetonitrile and chloroform, respectively. The reaction equilibrium in a solution is much more affected by the retro-Diels-Alder reaction than in a molten state. This study shows detailed investigation of DA reaction and provides beneficial knowledge for further use in self-healing polymer networks

A bio-epoxy surface adhesive for adherence of the metal component species to glass substrate with desirable adhesion strength, converted controlled removal upon request, and bio-based resource inclusion was developed. For the development of resin, three different lignin-based aromatic monophenols, guaiacol, cresol, and vanillin, were used in the chemical epoxidation reaction with epichlorohydrin. The forming transformation process was studied by viscoelasticity, in situ FTIR monitoring, and Raman. Unlike other hydroxyl phenyls, guaiacol showed successful epoxide production, and stability at room temperature. Optimization of epoxide synthesis was conducted by varying NaOH concentration or reaction time. The obtained product was characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance and viscosity measurements. For the production of adhesive, environmentally problematic bisphenol A (BPA) epoxy was partially substituted with the environmentally acceptable, optimized guaiacol-based epoxy at 20, 50, and 80 wt.%. Mechanics, rheological properties, and the possibility of adhered phase de-application were assessed on the bio-substitutes and compared to commercially available polyepoxides or polyurethanes. Considering our aim, the sample composed of 80 wt.% bio-based epoxy/20 wt.% BPA thermoset was demonstrated to be the most suitable among those analyzed, as it was characterized by low BPA, desired boundary area and recoverability using a 10 wt.% acetic acid solution under ultrasound.