Safe flame retardants from nature.
Although flame retardants are an important component of a fire-safe society, unfortunately many of them are hazardous to health, and the spread of persistent and toxic flame retardants is a major environmental problem. Flame retardants prevent fires by removing one or more of the components needed for a fire to start and sustain, using various mechanisms. These mechanisms can be explained based on the chemical properties of the molecules that make up the flame retardant. The chemical properties are related to the chemical structure of the molecules, which makes it possible to predict which molecules can be used as flame retardants, and through which mechanism they mainly act.