Does a divorce take effect or not, and is the husband bound by anything, if by his utterance he intended threat and intimidation without the intention of divorce?

If the husband did not intend divorce but rather a threat, then no divorce occurs, and nothing is binding on him. The wife must not ask for divorce without a legitimate reason; as the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: "Any woman who asks her husband for divorce without any [justifiable] cause, the scent of Paradise will be forbidden to her."