- Author
-
Green, J.
- Title
- Phosphorus-Containing Flame Retardants. A Review.
- Coporate
- Factory Mutual Research Corp., Princeton, NJ
- Book or Conf
- Fire Retartdant Chemicals Association. Flame Retardancy Advances in Fire Safety. Regulations, Testing, Products and Markets. March 28-30, 1984,
Pine Mountain, GA,
173-210 p.,
1984
- Keywords
-
phosphorus
|
plastics
|
flame retardants
|
radicals
- Abstract
- The primary flame retardants used in plastics are organohalogen- and organophosphorus-containing compounds. Halogen compounds are believed to function as flame retardandts in the vapor phase or flame zone of a burning plastic by inhibiting radical propagation. Antimony Ooxide is generally used as a synergist to form antimony oxyhalide and antimony trihalide during combustion. By contrast, phosphorus compounds are believed to function in the condensed or plastic phase by forming a surface char or glass. Some evidence points to a possible vapor phase reaction involving HPO2 radicals (slide 1). Some claims have been made for a phosphorus-halogen synergism, but, unlike the well-known antimony-halogen synergism, the literature does not substantiate these claims. Nevertheless, combinations of phosphorus and halogen in a single compound or in separate compounds are often quite useful, the former influencing char formation and the latter helping snuff out the flame in the flame zone. This paper is a review of organophoshorus flame retardants. With the exception of red phosphorus, only organophosphorus compounds will be disscussed. Phosphorus-containing flame retardant additives and rectives include phosphate esters, phosphonates, phospine oxides, chlorophosphates and chlorophosphonates.