New Trends in Fire Protection: 6 Common Flame Retardants Essential for the Coatings Industry!

New Trends in Fire Protection: 6 Common Flame Retardants Essential for the Coatings Industry!

1. Phosphorus and nitrogen flame retardant

Phosphorus flame retardant and nitrogen flame retardant are both commonly used environmental protection flame retardants. Phosphorus flame retardants in the combustion process can generate a more stable carbon layer, thus effectively blocking the transfer of heat, play a flame retardant role. Common phosphorus flame retardants are ammonium polyphosphate, phosphate flame retardants, organic phosphates, polymer phosphate and so on. Nitrogen-based flame retardants belong to the gas-phase flame retardant mechanism, which will release NO, NO₂ and other flame retardant gases in the reaction to dilute the oxygen concentration and achieve the effect of flame retardant. Traditional nitrogen-based flame retardants mainly include melamine, melamine urate, melamine salt and so on. However, in recent years it has been found that single mechanism flame retardants are often difficult to meet the flame retardant requirements of materials, so phosphorus and nitrogen composite flame retardants have been more and more widely used in the field of flame retardant of polymer materials.

2. Phosphorus flame retardant

Red phosphorus paste is an important phosphorus-based flame retardant, which is compounded by coated red phosphorus powder and flame retardant fuel. Red phosphorus itself has good flame retardant properties, and after the coating treatment, its safety and processing performance have been significantly improved. Applying red phosphorus paste in flame retardant coatings can promote the formation of a dense carbon layer on the surface of the material during combustion, thus effectively isolating oxygen and heat and achieving the purpose of flame retardancy.

3. Halogen flame retardant

Halogen flame retardants traditionally used in flame retardant coatings mainly include chlorine-containing, bromine-containing flame retardants and their derivatives. The advantages of these flame retardants are stable performance, relatively low price and easy to process and produce. Common halogenated flame retardants are decabromodiphenyl ether, chlorinated paraffin, brominated polystyrene, tetrabromobisphenol A, tetrabromo ether, hexabromocyclododecane, octabromo ether and so on. The flame retardant mechanism is mainly as follows: when fire occurs, halogen flame retardant will generate halogen radicals, which will combine with a large number of HO-radicals released by combustion of materials to generate HX and X-. X- reacts with RH- in the materials, and through this cyclic reaction, the chain reaction of combustion will be blocked and the flame retardant purpose will be realized. However, halogenated flame retardants may release harmful gases during combustion, so their use is somewhat limited in some scenarios with high environmental requirements.

4. Intumescent flame retardant

Intumescent flame retardant is a kind of flame retardant that integrates acid source, carbon source and gas source. During the combustion process, it can expand rapidly to form a layer of porous carbonaceous foam, which can effectively isolate oxygen and prevent heat transfer to the interior of the material, thus realizing the purpose of flame retardant. Intumescent flame retardant has many advantages such as good stability, non-toxicity, etc. In recent years, the application in flame retardant coatings has gradually increased, and the share of intumescent flame retardant coatings in the flame retardant coatings market has reached more than 10%, and its development prospects are very broad.

5. Graphene flame retardant

Graphene is a new type of material consisting of carbon atoms in a sheet-like structure. It has unique physical and chemical properties that can enhance the anticorrosive properties of coatings, waterproof penetration performance, and can form a good dense physical isolation layer. When graphene is applied to flame retardant coatings, it can cross-link with resin to generate a protective film. During combustion, this protective film can play a role in isolating heat and oxygen, while graphene can also release H₂O and CO₂ during combustion and enhance the stability of the charcoal layer, further preventing the combustion reaction, which significantly improves the flame retardant properties of the material.

6. Biomass flame retardant

Biomass is a renewable resource with the advantages of non-toxic, harmless and renewable. With the increasing concern for environmental protection and sustainable development, biomass flame retardants have gradually become a research hotspot. Utilizing renewable biomass resources to prepare flame retardants and applying them to daily necessities can not only meet the demand for flame retardancy, but also reduce the impact on the environment, which is in line with the concept of green development, and has important practical significance and broad application prospects.