Flame retardant rubber composites have attracted a great attention during the past decades owing to their irreplaceable roles in complex industrial systems. Large amounts of efforts have been made to improve the flame retardant ability, developing high efficiency flame retardant systems which can reduce the release of heat, smoke and toxic gases while not deteriorate overall properties is becoming more and more important. This review briefly outlines the recent developments of flame retardant natural rubbers, silicon rubbers, some kinds of artificial rubbers and polyurethane elastomer composites, focuses on the design, development, mechanism and applications of advanced high-performance flame-retardant methods. Finally, outlooks the future tendency including more environmental-friendly strategies, higher flame-retardant efficiency and development of multifunctional flame-retardant rubber composites are proposed.
