Polymer substrate—organohalogen—metal

Ternary Reactions among Polymer Substrates, Organohalogens, and Metal Oxides in the Condensed Phase under Pyrolytic Conditions... 

More recently, based on the results of an extensive series of small scale degradation studies, two additional mechanisms for the volatilization of antimony from antimony oxide/organohalogen flame retardant systems have been proposed (23,24). Of these two proposed mechanisms, [4] and [5], [4] does not involve HX formation at all and [5] suggests an important role for the direct interaction of the polymer substrate with the metal oxide prior to its reaction with the halogen compound. 

Mechanism [4] was based on studies involving the direct reaction of antimony metal with DBDPO in the absence of a hydrogen source. The data from these experiments clearly show that if the oxide is reduced to the metal, direct interaction with DBDPO would occur, and that this is a specific and highly exothermic reaction. However, no direct evidence for the presence of metallic antimony in mixtures containing antimony oxide, a polymer substrate and an organohalogen compound was obtained. 

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