phosphorus-containing LCPs have been proved to be a class of efficient high
molecular weight flame retardants, which can overcome the aforementioned
drawbacks, and have potential industrial applications to replace some existing
small molecular flame retardants. The recent relevant developments of
phosphorus-containing LCPs with high flame retardance and the corresponding
in situ flame-retardant composites are reviewed in this chapter.
Keywords
Liquid crystalline polymer · Flame retardance · Reinforcement · Composite
Definition
Highly flame-retardant liquid crystalline polymers (LCPs) are those polymers that are
composed of both mesogenic moiety and flame-retardant moiety in those polymer
chains, resulting in extremely high flame retardance. As a typical kind of highly flameretardant LCP, phosphorus-containing LCPs have been proved to be a class of efficient
polymeric flame retardants, which can overcome the practical drawbacks of smallmolecular flame retardants, such as migration and blooming problems; deterioration of
the inherent properties; potential persistence, bioaccumulation, and toxicity; etc. and
have potential industrial applications as the inherent flame-retardant materials.
Introduction
Thanks to the remarkable combination of mechanical and physical properties,
solvent resistance, low weight, and ease of processing, polymer materials have
long been used in the daily lives. Due to the inflammability of the most polymer
materials, unfortunately, losses of life and possessions caused by the fire associated
with the use of these polymer materials have aroused much concern among consumers, manufacturers, and official regulatory bodies (Lyon 1994; Stevens and
Mann 1999; Irvine et al. 2000; Chen and Wang 2010). Therefore, the use of flame
retardants to reduce combustibility and suppress the smoke or toxic gases of the
polymers after ignition and combustion becomes a real imminence to explore flameretardant materials to reduce or even to avoid the fire threats.
Generally, two methods have been established to achieve flame retardance for
general polymers. One is chemically incorporating reactive flame retardant into
polymer chains via copolymerization, branching, or grafting, while the other is
physically introducing additive-type flame retardants into the matrices via blending,
coating, surface finishing, dyeing, etc. (Lu and Hamerton 2002; Bourbigot and
Duquesne 2007; Laoutid et al. 2009). Concerning the processing simplicity
and comparatively low cost, adding flame-retardant additives become the simplest
and most useful and attractive approach to achieve flame retardance. However,
normally the small-molecule organic and/or inorganic flame retardants exhibit
550
L. Chen and Y.-Z. Wang
molecular weight flame retardants, which can overcome the aforementioned
drawbacks, and have potential industrial applications to replace some existing
small molecular flame retardants. The recent relevant developments of
phosphorus-containing LCPs with high flame retardance and the corresponding
in situ flame-retardant composites are reviewed in this chapter.
Keywords
Liquid crystalline polymer · Flame retardance · Reinforcement · Composite
Definition
Highly flame-retardant liquid crystalline polymers (LCPs) are those polymers that are
composed of both mesogenic moiety and flame-retardant moiety in those polymer
chains, resulting in extremely high flame retardance. As a typical kind of highly flameretardant LCP, phosphorus-containing LCPs have been proved to be a class of efficient
polymeric flame retardants, which can overcome the practical drawbacks of smallmolecular flame retardants, such as migration and blooming problems; deterioration of
the inherent properties; potential persistence, bioaccumulation, and toxicity; etc. and
have potential industrial applications as the inherent flame-retardant materials.
Introduction
Thanks to the remarkable combination of mechanical and physical properties,
solvent resistance, low weight, and ease of processing, polymer materials have
long been used in the daily lives. Due to the inflammability of the most polymer
materials, unfortunately, losses of life and possessions caused by the fire associated
with the use of these polymer materials have aroused much concern among consumers, manufacturers, and official regulatory bodies (Lyon 1994; Stevens and
Mann 1999; Irvine et al. 2000; Chen and Wang 2010). Therefore, the use of flame
retardants to reduce combustibility and suppress the smoke or toxic gases of the
polymers after ignition and combustion becomes a real imminence to explore flameretardant materials to reduce or even to avoid the fire threats.
Generally, two methods have been established to achieve flame retardance for
general polymers. One is chemically incorporating reactive flame retardant into
polymer chains via copolymerization, branching, or grafting, while the other is
physically introducing additive-type flame retardants into the matrices via blending,
coating, surface finishing, dyeing, etc. (Lu and Hamerton 2002; Bourbigot and
Duquesne 2007; Laoutid et al. 2009). Concerning the processing simplicity
and comparatively low cost, adding flame-retardant additives become the simplest
and most useful and attractive approach to achieve flame retardance. However,
normally the small-molecule organic and/or inorganic flame retardants exhibit
550
L. Chen and Y.-Z. Wang