Flame retardants are found in everything from electronics to furniture. Though they protect against fire and save lives, they are implicated in negative health and environmental effects and persist in the environment—often finding their way into the food chain. Organohalogen flame retardants are already banned in California for many product categories.
“The best flame-retardant chemicals have been organohalogen compounds, particularly brominated aromatics,” says Bob Howell, Ph.D., the project’s principal investigator and a scientist at CMU’s Center for Applications in Polymer Science at Michigan State University. “The problem is, when you throw items away, and they go into a landfill, these substances can leach into the environment… A number of flame retardants are no longer available because of toxicity concerns, so there is a real need to find new materials that, one, are nontoxic and don’t persist, and two, don’t rely upon petroleum,” Howell adds.
Howell and his team have been working to add phosphorous atoms—which are flame-resistant—to gallic acid from fruits, nuts and leaves and 3,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid from buckwheat. The work will be presented this fall at the American Chemical Society’s 2019 National Meeting and Exposition.