Introduction to Brominated Flame Retardants: Commercially Products, Applications, and Physicochemical Properties

In order to meet fire safety regulations, flame retardants (FRs) are applied to combustible materials such as polymers, plastics, wood, paper, and textiles. Approximately, 25% of all FRs contain bromine as the active ingredient. More than 80 different aliphatic, cyclo-aliphatic, aromatic, and polymeric compounds are used as brominated flame retardants (BFRs). BFRs, such as polibrominated biphenyls (PBBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), and tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA), have been used in different consumer products in large quantities and consequently they were detected in the environment. In this chapter, an overview of the production, application, and properties of most commonly used BFRs is presented.

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