FLAME RETARDANTS | MATERIALS
Innovative flame retardants extend fire safety options
Developing plastics applications in areas such as EVs and green energy installations
are driving demand for more effective flame retardant
technologies.Peter Mapleston explores the latest innovations
Selecting the best flame retardant for any plastics application is no easy task. Some excel at prevent- ing ignition, others at minimising heat release in a fire or reducing smoke generation. Recyclability may be a key priority in some applications, while others may emphasise halogen-free formulations. Given the very broad range of flame retardant applications and the equally broad variety of flame retardant technologies, it should be no surprise that there is little consensus on the optimum solution. Where there is agreement, however, is that the ever expanding use of electrical equipment, electronics and other products with the potential to start fires requires development of flame retarded plastics that deliver levels of safety appropriate to the application. There are many routes to addressing that need and the options continue to grow. It is fairly rare for a new class of flame retardants to come to the market but that is the claim being made by Inovia Materials for its ionic liquids. “In 2009, I filed for a patent in the USA featuring using ionic liquids as flame retardants, which turned out to be the first one in the world. In 2012, I founded Ionic Flame Retardant in Colorado. In 2016, the company was restructured. Now you see Inovia Materials,” says Yanjie “Jeff” Xu, President of Inovia Materials. That US patent (US20110073331A1) has now been supplemented with patents in Europe, Japan, and Canada. Xu defines an ionic liquid as a salt in which the ions are poorly coordinated, at least one ion has a
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delocalised charge, and one component is organic. He says examples containing elements such as phosphorus, nitrogen, and sulphur can be used as halogen-free flame retardants. Structures can be tailored to work with different plastic materials so that processability can be improved, optical properties are unaffected, and there is minimal effect on mechanical properties. The negligible volatility and ionic nature of the products also prevents the additives from leaching out and evaporating, he adds. When used in combination with traditional flame
retardants, ionic flame retardants improve compat- ibility between additives and plastics, further enhance flame retarding performance, and mitigate negative effects of additives on the properties of plastics. “We have made a series of breakthroughs,”
claims Xu. “Our flame retardant can afford PMMA, both extrusion and casting products, high retar- dancy (V-0) and keep its transparency; our flame retardant for PC can afford thin PC products (0.06-1.5mm) high retardancy (again V-0) without affecting its transparency; our grade for TPU can enable V-0 at only 6-8% dosage, a significant reduction from 30% plus dosage level of traditional flame retardants; our retardants for polyamide provides not only robust retardancy, but also improves the mechanical, thermal, electrical properties compared to the virgin resin.” Another significant advantage, Xu says, is that
December 2021 | COMPOUNDING WORLD 19
Main image: Producers of all types of flame retardant
chemistries are working to produce more effective flame retardant systems to meet new application demands
IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK
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