What is the role of flame retardants?

In the lives of modern people, flame retardants are almost everywhere. However, people usually can't see it at all, nor can they know its existence. For most people, there is no idea "what exactly is a flame retardant". In fact, in the mobile phones we carry with us, the computers on our desks, the subways we take every day, the cars we drive, and even the mattresses that make you sleep soundly every night, thousands of flame retardant molecules are like They are always prepared as vigilant little guards, silently guarding your life and property, and keeping us away from the threat of fire. What is a flame retardant? As the name suggests, flame retardants are chemical additives that can prevent objects from burning. Adding flame retardants to flammable materials can make the materials difficult to ignite when exposed to an open flame, or easy to extinguish after being ignited, and not easy to spread. . Flame retardants can also reduce heat and reduce smoke emissions. Flame retardants are not a simple product, but a large family. There are 700 to 800 family members. They can be divided into organic flame retardants and inorganic flame retardants, or halogen, phosphorus, and nitrogen based on reaction elements. And silicon-based, can also be divided into mixed type, additive type and reactive type according to the method of use. The reason why there are so many types of flame retardants is to satisfy the "tastes" of different materials. Each flame retardant guard has his own best position, and they can also be used in conjunction with each other, division of labor and cooperation, and excellent completion of the task of preventing fires. These invisible little guards are active in all aspects of people's lives. They are quietly "lurking" in the circuit boards of various electronic appliances such as mobile phones, computers, TVs, refrigerators, etc. They are also indispensable in the plastic shells of various electronic products, such as the seats of airplanes, ships, and buses, and insulation materials for exterior walls of buildings. They are silently standing there. In developed countries such as Europe and the United States, flame retardants are also widely used in the clothing of people with disabilities such as children, the elderly, and patients. my country has also promulgated national standards, which set clear flame-retardant requirements for building materials and decorations, textiles, furniture, wires, switches, lamps, household appliances, etc. used in public places. Flame retardant principles are different. It is not easy to assume the role of a security guard against fire. Flame retardants must have excellent skills. Combustion requires three major elements-combustibles, combustibles (oxygen) and fire source. The combustion process is divided into heating, decomposition, fire, burning and spreading. If you remove any of these elements, or find a way to control the combustion process in the budding stage of heating and decomposition, you can effectively avoid fires. In terms of preventing flame burning, different types of flame retardants have their own tricks: some prevent combustibles from generating combustible gas by absorbing heat; some form a dense coating on the surface of combustibles to isolate the combustibles from contact with oxygen; Some capture the free radicals participating in the combustion reaction to achieve the purpose of inhibiting the free radical chain reaction; others dilute the oxygen by generating incombustible gas, thereby achieving the effect of slowing down the combustion speed.