Biomaterial flame retardants

380 pages, 15 chapters, research updates on bio-based materials as flame retardant components. The book is misleadingly titled “Biomaterials as Green Flame Retardants” whereas it is largely about (partly) bio-based flame retardants (biomaterials that have been chemically modified, e.g. by reaction with a phosphorus or nitrogen compound). There is also a chapter on phosphazenes, whereas these are not intrinsically biobased (can be synthesised partially using plant derived organic carbon, as can most organic chemicals), and indeed this chapter does not particularly address bio-based phosphazenes.

The book’s editors’ preface suggests that biomaterials are “poised to replace a majority of traditional FRs” but the book chapters’ authors are research scientists not representing industry or users. Indeed, the first chapter (overview) concludes “Biomaterials … may provide some fire resistance, however they are ineffective compared to synthetic flame retardants … they frequently require modification with other flame retardant chemical compounds” and underlines fundamental application problems including long-term stability (durability), impacts on treated material properties and difficulties of incorporation, possible moisture uptake.

The book’s concluding chapter on Trends addresses principally research questions and also identifies important challenges to industrial implementation: availability and cost, scalability and stability of production processes polymer compatibility, durability, regulation and standards.

Chapters cover research developments and challenges for use of different biological molecules as flame retardants, either as such or after processing or chemical modification: alginate, phytate, tannic acid, chitin, (micro)cellulose, lignin, proteins, DNA. There is a lack of distinction between biological organic polymers, which can be a carbon source in intumescent systems but are not as such flame retardants, or which can be chemically modified to produce (partly) bio-based flame retardants (e.g. lignin, cellulose, tannic acid) and biological molecules which themselves have flame-retardant effects because of P and/or N content (phytate, chitin, alginate, DNA).

“Biomaterials as Green Flame Retardants”, Springer, ed. T. Mokhena, M. Mochane, E. Sadiku, S. Ray, 2024 ISBN 978-981-97-6870-7 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-6871-4