Flame Retardants in a Sustainable World

Dear Colleagues,

The development of new flame retardant (FR) formulations has become inevitably intertwined with long-term environmental, economic, and social sustainability. The main driving forces in the development and design of new FR systems, their preparation strategies and application approaches are (1) efficiency and performance of flame retardant in specific applications; (2) sustainability of flame retardant, including smoke toxicity, migration/leaching of FR, and its (eco)toxicity profile; and (3) sustainability of FR preparation/application processes, including their environmental and public health impact as well as production cost. This visionary concept has already given rise to the development of novel synthesized as well as bio-based flame-retardant alternatives to banned persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic FRs. Therefore, this Special Issue aims to broaden scientific knowledge with recent developments on innovative and sustainable inorganic and organic FRs of low or high molecular weight; bio-based FR systems; FR synergistic mixtures; their preparation processes; application in the polymer bulk, composite, film- and fiber-forming polymers, coatings, textile; and performance.

We invite the research community to contribute to this Special Issue by submitting original research articles or comprehensive reviews. The topics of interest include but are not limited to the following:

• Inorganic, organic and inorganic/organic flame retardants
• Bio-based flame retardants
• Flame-retardant co-monomers and co-polymers
• Multi-component flame-retardant systems
• Multifunctional flame retardants
• Application of flame retardants
• Thermal stability
• Flammability and combustion behavior
• Flame retardant mechanism
• Smoke toxicity
• Migration/leaching
• (Eco)toxicity 

Dr. Jelena Vasiljević
Prof. Dr. Ivan Jerman
Dr. Gabriela Kalčíková
Prof. Dr. Gunnar Seide
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.