Polymer materials received much concern in many fields due to their excellent properties. However, most polymer materials are combustible and flammable, which leads to a lot of malignant events such as misfire, death and property loss and limits its application in some fields. In order to solve the flame-retardant problem of polymer materials and meet the needs for people's safe life, the development of new, efficient and environmentally friendly flame retardants has become an important research topic in the field of flame retardant. At present, the flame retardant industry is the stage of vigorous development in China. There are many kinds of flame retardants. However, flame retardants also exposed some problems in the process of their application. A large number of flame retardants will deteriorate the mechanical properties of polymer composites, making it difficult to achieve a balance between flame retardancy and mechanical properties; the smoke and harmful gas produced by flame retardants in the process of exerting flame retardancy will cause serious pollution to the environment, which is not consistent with the environmental requirements; the flame retardant effect is reduced because of the difficulty of dispersing in the polymer and the poor compatibility with the polymer; the addition of flame retardant affects the color of polymer, so that it can not meet the requirements of different properties in actual application. In response to the above problems, the researchers devoted to the development of the integration of environmental protection, high efficiency, flame retardant and smoke suppression of new flame retardant, and improved the dispersion of flame retardants in polymer matrix and two-phase interface design aspects. In order to meet the requirements of the multi-function of flame retardants of polymer, the flame retardants are usually treated via compounding, nano-treatment and surface modification technology. Besides, the quantitative evaluation systems including evaluation theory and model of dispersion and interface compatibility need to be further improved, which has a realistic significance on the design of environment-friendly and excellent comprehensive performance of polymer composites. The research and application progress of flame retardants in environmental protection, dispersion, compatibility, flame retardant efficiency and the influence on the comprehensive performance of polymers are reviewed in this paper. On this basis, the technical problems of flame retardants are discussed. The solutions of related problems and the development trend of flame retardants are introduced. © 2022, Materials Review Magazine. All right reserved.
