LAUSR

Compounds containing sulfur in various forms may be used as flame retardants or as adjuvants to promote the activity of other flame-retarding elements, most notably phosphorus. To gain a better understanding of the nature of the sulfur moiety in a flame retardant on performance, a series of phosphorus esters derived from isosorbide containing sulfur at various levels of oxygenation (sulfide, sulfoxide, sulfone) have been prepared and evaluated for flame-retardant impact in diglycidyl ether of bis-phenol A epoxy. In all cases, the presence of sulfur positively impacts flame retardancy. In general, the impact on flame retardancy increases as the level of oxygenation at sulfur increases (sulfone > sulfoxide > sulfide).