Performance and mechanisms of fire retardants in polymers—A review

The fundamental mechanisms by which fire retardant additives can interrupt the self-sustained combustion cycle of organic polymers are reviewed. Evaluation of fire retardant performance and methods used for mechanism assessment are discussed. Examples are given of recent mechanistic studies of halogen-based and intumescent systems indicating that some previous generalisations should be revised. It is shown that a deeper understanding of fire retardance mechanisms acquired through detailed thermal degradation studies is the only way to answer the ever increasing demand for polymeric materials characterised by minimised overall fire hazard.