The ubiquity of polymeric materials in daily life comes with an increased fire risk, and sustained research into efficient flame retardants is key to ensuring the safety of the populace and material goods from accidental fires. Phosphorus, a versatile and effective element for use in flame retardants, has the potential to supersede the halogenated variants that are still widely used today: current formulations employ a variety of modes of action and methods of implementation, as additives or as reactants, to solve the task of developing flame-retarding polymeric materials. Phosphorus-based flame retardants can act in both the gas and condensed phase during a fire. This Review investigates how current phosphorus chemistry helps in reducing the flammability of polymers, and addresses the future of sustainable, efficient, and safe phosphorus-based flame-retardants from renewable sources.

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Molecular Firefighting—How Modern Phosphorus Chemistry Can Help Solve the Challenge of Flame Retardancy

Review of OPFRs in animals and humans: Absorption, bioaccumulation, metabolism, and internal exposure research

Understanding plastic degradation and microplastic formation in the environment: A review

Polymer/polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) nanocomposites: An overview of fire retardance

Human exposure, hazard and risk of alternative plasticizers to phthalate esters

Organophosphorus flame retardants and plasticizers: sources, occurrence, toxicity and human exposure.

In the Pearl Delta region, urban rivers have been seriously polluted, and the input of non-point source pollution materials, such as chemical oxygen demand (COD), into rivers cannot be neglected. During 2009-2010, the water qualities at eight different catchments in the Fenjiang River of Foshan city were monitored, and the COD loads for eight rivulet sewages were calculated in respect of different rainfall conditions. Interesting results were concluded in our paper. The rainfall and landuse type played important roles in the COD loading, with greater influence of rainfall than landuse type. Consequently, a COD loading formula was constructed that was defined as a function of runoff and landuse type that were derived SCS model and land use map. Loading of COD could be evaluated and predicted with the constructed formula. The mean simulation accuracy for single rainfall event was 75.51%. Long-term simulation accuracy was better than that of single rainfall. In 2009, the estimated COD loading and its loading intensity were 8 053 t and 339 kg x (hm2 x a)(-1), and the industrial land was regarded as the main source of COD pollution area. The severe non-point source pollution such as COD in Fenjiang River must be paid more attention in the future.

Yi-Shan Liao

Papers

Organophosphorus flame retardants and plasticizers: sources, occurrence, toxicity and human exposure.

[Estimation of urban non-point source pollution loading and its factor analysis in the Pearl River Delta].