Flame-retardant polycarbonate composition

Claim 1

An improved flame-retardant polycarbonate composition of an aromatic carbonate polymer in admixture with 0.01 to about 5.0 parts per hundred parts of the aromatic carbonate polymer of an additive selected from the group consisting of organic alkali metal salts of aromatic sulfonic acids, organic alkaline earth metal salts of aromatic sulfonic acids or mixtures thereof, the improvement which comprises having in admixture with the flame retardant aromatic carbonate polymer an additive which is an inorganic halide selected from alkali metal and alkaline earth metal halides wherein the halide substituent is bromine, chlorine or iodine, and an organic monomeric, polymeric aromatic and heterocyclic halide or mixtures thereof; said inorganic halide being present in amounts of from 0.01 to about 5.0 parts per hundred parts of the aromatic carbonate polymer; said monomer aromatic halide is present in amounts of from 0.10 to about 10.0 parts per hundred parts of aromatic carbonate polymer and is selected from the following formulae: ##STR9## wherein R is either hydrogen, alkyl, aryl, alkoxy, aryloxy, alkylthio, arylthio, alkysulfonyl, arylsufonyl of 1 to 20 carbon atoms or an electron withdrawing radical; X is independently chlorine or bromine; a is integer of 1 l to 6 and b is 6 and b is 6-a and wherein R can be substituted by electron withdrawing substituents; b. R'.sub.c R".sub.d wherein R' may be either: ##STR10## wherein X is independently chlorine or bromine; R" is an aryl radical of 1-4 aromatic rings; c is an integer of 1-2; and d is an integer of 1-2; said polymeric aromatic halide is present in amounts of from 0.10 to about 10.0 parts per hundred parts of aromatic carbonate polymer and has the following formula: ##STR11## wherein [A] is selected from the following formula: (O), R.sub.2 (X).sub.j wherein (O) is oxygen; i is an integer of 0 to 4; R 2 is an aromatic radical of one to four aromatic rings; X is chlorine or bromine; j is an integer of 0 to 10; R 1 is an organic radical of 1-20 carbon atoms and is either alkyl, aralkyl, alkenyl, aralkenyl, aryl, arylene, alkylene, aralkylene, alkenylene, aralkenylene, alkylidene, aralkylidene, alkenylidene or aralkenylidene, and the group [A] , as well as a trivalent and tetravalent aromatic nucleus and R 1 can contain an electron withdrawing radical; [Y] is a di-, tri- or tetravalent radical selected from the following: ##STR12## e is an integer of 0-3; f is an integer of 0-2; g is an integer of 0-2000 and h is an integer of from 0-2000; provided, however, that the sum of g and h must be at least 4 and can be as high as 2000; and, said heterocyclic halide is present in amounts of from 0.10 to about 10.0 parts per hundred parts of aromatic carbonate polymer and has the following formula: X.sub.O-15 R.sub.4 wherein X is independently chlorine or bromine and R is an organic nucleus selected from the group of organic heterocyclic nuclei consisting of ##STR13## wherein Z is selected from the hetero atoms considering of sulfur, oxygen and nitrogen, ##STR14## wherein Z and Z' are independently selected from the group consisting of carbon and the hetero atoms, nitrogen, sulfur and oxygen, providing that at least one Z is a hetero atom, ##STR15##