Biobased flame retardants represent attractive alternatives to traditional organohalogen compounds which are persistent in the environment, tend to bioaccumulate and may pose risks to human health. Tartaric acid is generated annually in great abundance as a by-product of wine making. It is nontoxic and widely used as a food ingredient. It is tetrafunctional which provides broad opportunity for conversion to a wide spectrum of useful materials. It has been used as a base for the generation of a variety of new compounds that display good flame retardancy in DGEBA (diglycidyl ether of bis-phenol A) epoxy. These range from simple phosphinate and phosphonate esters to oligomeric materials containing bromine, in both saturated and unsaturated units, or bromine and phosphorus.

生物基阻燃剂是环境中存在的传统有机卤素化合物的诱人替代品，这些有机卤素化合物会在环境中持久存在，易于生物蓄积，并可能对人体健康构成威胁。酒石酸每年大量产生，是酿酒的副产品。它无毒，被广泛用作食品成分。它是四官能的，为转化为各种有用的材料提供了广泛的机会。它已被用作生成多种新化合物的基础，这些新化合物在DGEBA（双酚A的二缩水甘油醚）环氧树脂中显示出良好的阻燃性。这些范围从简单的次膦酸酯和膦酸酯到含有饱和和不饱和单元中的溴或溴和磷的低聚材料。