Flame Retardant's Categories and Basic Requirements

With the expansion and increase in the use of polymer composites, the application of flame retardant materials and flame retardant technology has made some progress. Phosphorus-based flame retardants are widely used due to their variety and excellent flame retardant performance. In future research on phosphorus-based flame retardants, more emphasis should be placed on the development of flame retardants with high thermal stability and good compatibility.

Flame retardants are additives used to prevent materials from igniting and to suppress the spread of flames. They are mainly used to flame-retard synthetic and natural polymers and are an indispensable chemical material in our lives. Since the widespread use of synthetic organic polymers, humans have faced new fire threats. At present, the global fire situation is very serious, so this chemical additive, the flame retardant, is particularly important. Categories and basic requirements of flame retardants:

According to the relationship between the flame retardant and the material being flame-retarded, flame retardants can be divided into two categories: additive and reactive. The former is only physically dispersed in the substrate and is mostly used for thermoplastic polymers. The latter acts as a monomer or auxiliary reagent to participate in the synthesis of polymers, eventually becoming a structural unit of the polymer, mostly used for thermosetting polymers.

According to the flame-retardant elements, commonly used flame retardants are divided into halogen series, organic phosphorus series and halogen-phosphorus series, nitrogen series, phosphorus-nitrogen series, antimony series, aluminum-magnesium series, inorganic phosphorus series, boron series, silicon series, molybdenum series, etc. There is also a class of intumescent flame retardants and a kind of nano-inorganic substance that can form a flame-retardant polymer/inorganic nano-composite material with a series of polymers.