Fire retardants are substances those reduce the flammability of materials or delay their combustion. Due to its functionality and cost advantage, today polymeric materials are used in numerous industrial applications. For polymers to succeed in an application where flame retardancy is required, flame retardant chemicals play a vital role to the development of polymeric formulations. Requirements to meet regulatory standards are increasingly becoming stringent. Whether the polymers are petrochemical based or bio-based, regulatory standards add another dimension to the polymeric material formulation challenges.
In a recent review1, Alexander Morgan and Jeffrey Gilman (USA) provided a summary of commercial flame retardant technology. If you wish to pursue work on flammability of plastics, this review will provide you the fundamentals behind polymer combustion.
Another paper that elaborates phosphorus-based flame retardants is equally important read. Use of halogen-based flame retardants are diminishing due to safety and environmental reasons. Sometimes, phosphorus-based flame retardants (known as PFRs) are touted as alternatives to the brominated flame retardants. PFRs could be either chemically attached to the polymers or could be mixed physically into the polymers as additives. A detailed up to date review published recently in Chemosphere has addressed varieties of issues (properties, production, toxicity etc.) relating to PFRs. Different instrumental analyses of PFRs have been included in this report2.
1 A.B. Morgan and J.W. Gilman; Fire and Materials, Available online March 19, 2012 [ DOI:10.1002/fam.2128 ]
2 Ike van der Veen and Jacob de Boer; Chemosphere; Available online April 24, 2012 [ DOI:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2012.03.067 ]
