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Thermal Decomposition of Antimony Oxychloride and Mode in Flame Retardancy

Various antimony compounds have been used for a number of years as flame retardants impregnated in textiles, wood, and numerous cellular plastics such as polyurethane foam (1-7). Among the most important of these compounds are the trioxide, Sb203, and the oxychloride, SbOCI. Antimony trioxide by itself, however, has been found to be a very poor flame retardant (4, 6). But when use in conjunction with a halogenated organic compound, a very good retardant combination results giving synergistic effects (5-7). Optimum flame retardancy has been observed when mole ratio of antimony: chlorine is close to 1 : ( 1 ) . The evolution of hydrogen chloride from the chlorinated organic material and its subsequent interaction with Sb203 to yield SbOCI in situ has been offered as an explanation for the enhanced flame retardancy (1). Indeed, antimony oxychloride itself has been employed as a flame retardant, usually in conjunction with other halogen releasing compounds (2, 3). Still unanswered is the question of how SbOCI decomposes and functions in its role as a flame retardant. The current literature contains a somewhat confused and inaccurate picture regarding the thermal breakdown of SbOCI. This paper describes new thermal decomposition studies on antimony oxychloride which should eliminate much of the present confusion. A discussion of how this decomposition is related to the flame retardancy observed is also given.