Green Flame Retardants

In the last decade, several studies involving the researchers from academics and industry have been specifically focused on seeking environmental-friendly flame -retardants (FRs) that exhibit a remarkable “green” character and ensure fire performances comparable to those achieved by the conventional FR compounds. Recently, we have started to assess the effectiveness of different biomacromolecules (whey proteins, caseins, hydrophobins, and deoxyribonucleic acid – DNA) to be a valuable unusual green alternative to the conventional compounds [1, 2]. These new “odd” FRs have proven to be efficient for both fabrics (cotton, polyester and blends of them) as well as for polymeric films (ethylene-vinyl-acetate copolymer - EVA -, polypropylene - PP -, acrylonitrile-butadiene styrene - ABS -, polyester - PET - and polyamide 6 - PA6). Simple water-based procedures such as impregnation or Layer-by-Layer assembly have been successfully employed for depositing efficient fireproof coatings. Here, the collected results will be thoroughly described and presented. References 1. Malucelli, G, Bosco F, Alongi J, Carosio F, Di Blasio A, Mollea C, Cuttica F, Casale A. Biomacromolecules as novel green flame retardant systems for textiles: an overview. RSC Adv. 2014 ;4:46024-46039. 2. Alongi J, Malucelli G. Cotton flame retardancy: state of the art and future perspectives. RSC Adv. 2015;5:24239-24263. 3. Alongi J, Di Blasio A, Cuttica F, Carosio F, Malucelli G. Bulk or surface treatments of ethylene vinyl acetate copolymers with DNA: investigation on the flame retardant properties. Eur. Polym. J. 2014;51:112-119. 4. Alongi J, Cuttica F, Carosio F. DNA coatings from by-products: a panacea for the flame retardancy of EVA, PP, ABS, PET and PA6? ACS Sustainable Chemsitry and Engineering, 2016;4:3544–3551.