The rise of MOFs and their derivatives for flame retardant polymeric materials: A critical review

Metal organic frameworks (MOFs)-derived flame retardants have been recently emerged as a new class of additives in polymeric materials to reduce the fire hazard during application in situations that require high fire safety. In terms of tailored chemical components, tunable nanostructure and abundant porosity, MOFs-based flame retardants display charming features compared to the traditional ones. Typical MOFs, such as zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs), MILs (MIL for Materials Institute Lavoisier), UiOs (UiO for University of Oslo), combined with newly designed counterparts, have been employed directly or utilized after modification in variety of universal plastics including epoxy resin, polyurethane, poly(lactic acid), polystyrene, etc. A work need to be come out to run through the research process and methods recently reported surrounding this novel technology. This review article born at the right moment aims to summarize the most relevant and up-to-date advances in MOFs and their derivatives for flame retardant polymeric materials mainly in the past three years. The main block sheds light on the mentality of designing for MOFs-based flame retardants via structural and molecular devise. Special attention will be paid to the flame retardant efficiency and corresponding mechanism of different kinds of MOFs-based flame retardants in polymer composites. The above introduction develops in line with pristine MOFs, MOFs as synergist, modified MOFs, MOFs’ hybrids and MOF derivatives. Finally, we will provide a brief comment on forthcoming research opportunities and challenges for future growth of MOFs-based flame retardants in polymeric materials.