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Article: Halogens and halides: a gearhead's guide to some of the chemicals that make up our boards.
- Article from:
- Circuits Assembly
- Article date:
- January 1, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 UP Media Group, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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There's been a lot of buzz about halogen-free and halide-free products. But what do halogen-free and halide-free actually mean? What exactly are halogens and halides? Why do we want to get rid of them? And why do we use them in the first place? I wanted to find out more about these families of chemicals getting so much attention.
I'm a mechanical engineer, and chemistry was never my strongest suit. When I hear the term "halogen," I think of automobile headlights with brighter, more focused beams, not flame-retardants that contain bromine. But with the talk about halogen-free and halide-free, I felt compelled to ask a couple of chemists exactly what this meant. Of ...