Lanxess will present its comprehensive portfolio for the plastics industry at K 2025 in Duesseldorf from October 8 to 15, including polymer additives, colorants and heat-stable inorganic pigments, alongside new product developments at booth C78 in Hall 6. Harald Puetz, Head of Marketing for brominated and phosphorus-based flame retardants at Lanxess, said: "Polymer additives are key factors in the performance, safety, and sustainability of modern plastics. Our diverse solutions open up new opportunities for manufacturers and end customers to realize the most demanding applications with innovative, durable, and environmentally friendly materials." Highlights include brominated and phosphorus-based flame retardants, such as the reactive phosphonate Levagard 2100 for PUR and PIR insulation foams, and Emerald Innovation 5000 as a polymeric alternative to DBDPE. The company also marks 75 years of the phthalate-free plasticizer Mesamoll, now available with an approximately 20 percent lower product carbon footprint via a mass balance approach. In stabilizers, new label-free carbodiimides Stabaxol L and Stabaxol P LF extend anti-hydrolysis options for PU, TPU, TPE and polyester-based systems. Color solutions span e-mobility safety orange with Macrolex Orange HT and Bayplast Orange TP LXS 51137, deep blacks for automotive with Macrolex Black types, a new high-performance solvent dye Macrolex Blue TP LXS 51151, and Colortherm inorganic pigments engineered for high thermal stability, supported by application testing.
Efficient flame retardants for polymers
Lanxess offers one of the most extensive ranges of organic flame retardants, covering brominated and phosphorus-based solutions. Polymeric and reactive chemistries are designed to reduce additive release from polymers while maintaining fire safety. Brominated flame retardants are widely used in construction and electronics due to their high efficiency. Phosphorus-based solutions add benefits such as processability and elasticity in polyurethane and polyvinyl chloride systems.
Levagard 2100 is a next-generation reactive flame retardant developed for rigid polyurethane, polyisocyanurate foams and closed cell spray foams used in construction and insulation. Unlike conventional additive flame retardants such as TCPP, it is a low-viscosity reactive phosphonate that chemically bonds into the polymer matrix. This integration supports low volatility, minimal migration, lower VOC emissions and enhanced durability, while its low plasticizing effect can improve mechanical properties. Levagard 2100 is fully backward integrated into a phosphorus-based building block produced in Germany, supporting supply chain resilience.
Emerald Innovation 5000 is a newly developed polymeric, melt-blendable flame retardant designed as an alternative to decabromodiphenyl ethane. By addressing migratory behavior typical of small-molecule brominated products, it provides high permanence and low mobility in compounded plastics, preventing blooming over long service lives. It enables a broad processing window and tailored physicochemical properties in various engineering resins.
LANXESS will be exhibiting its comprehensive product portfolio for the plastics industry at K 2025. Diverse polymer additives and colorants for plastics will be presented
Plasticizers: 75 years of Mesamoll
Lanxess is marking 75 years of Mesamoll, a phthalate-free plasticizer used to produce flexible, durable and long-lasting products across applications such as textile printing, waterbeds, stand-up paddle boards, automotive and sealants. Its high-gelling capacity and saponification resistance support cost-efficient manufacture with extended service life. In 2023, the product underwent a transition to a more sustainable version using carbon-reduced raw materials, lowering the product carbon footprint by approximately 20 percent via a mass balance approach, without changes to quality or performance. Alongside Mesamoll, the additive portfolio includes multiple other non-phthalate plasticizers.
Stabaxol product range enables hydrolysis stabilization
To provide more sustainable and less regulatory restrictive solutions, Lanxess is expanding its hydrolysis stabilizer portfolio with Stabaxol L as a monomeric carbodiimide and Stabaxol P LF as a polymeric carbodiimide. These label-free, low-emission products address the trend toward customized anti-hydrolysis agents optimized for specific applications, balancing stabilization performance, toxicology, emissions and handling.
Stabaxol L shows strong performance in polyester or polylactone polyols, thermoplastic polyurethanes, other PU elastomers and polyester-based polymers. In polyurethane and PET monofilaments it helps extend service life under warm and moist conditions. Stabaxol P LF is a label-free, sustainable hydrolysis stabilizer that provides excellent protection in ester-based thermoplastic elastomer compounds, with high thermal stability and lower emissions during processing. Typical applications include cable sheathing, filaments and textiles, shoe systems, rollers, engineering injection moldings and electronic housings.
Advanced color solutions for plastics
Lanxess will present high-performance colorants that enable energy-efficient, direct coloration of plastic goods, eliminating the need for subsequent coating and reworking. The range includes universal products and specialties for demanding applications.
For high-voltage e-mobility components, a durable and highly visible orange marking is often required. Macrolex Orange HT, a halogen-free, soluble organic dye, enables permanent coloration in the RAL 2003 orange shade and offers excellent heat stability, lightfastness and weather resistance, along with high color strength and brilliance. It is suited to key engineering plastics that require resistance to high processing temperatures. Complementing this, Bayplast Orange TP LXS 51137 (Pigment Orange 68) provides excellent weather resistance and durability for engineering components, including housings of outdoor power tools and safety-relevant parts exposed to UV and harsh conditions, supporting long-term color stability.
Macrolex Orange HT enables coloration solutions for plastic components used in e-mobility and other sectors, where a durable and highly visible orange color is required to mark critical high-voltage applications
For automotive applications, Macrolex Black types deliver deep, piano-like black shades with high gloss and durability for interior and exterior components. Their compatibility with modern recycling processes supports sustainability goals in the automotive sector.
Lanxess has also expanded its range with Macrolex Blue TP LXS 51151 (Solvent Blue 122), an organic high-performance solvent dye suitable for coloring polyesters, polyester fiber and other technically demanding plastics, meeting the quality standards associated with the Macrolex line. The Lanxess colorant portfolio comprises around 150 products, including Macrolex dyes, high-performance pigments, specialty colors and pigment preparations.
Colortherm: heat stable inorganic pigments
As technical plastics are used more widely in high-tech applications, pigments face increasing performance demands, with heat stability becoming a critical parameter. The Colortherm range includes synthetic red iron oxide pigments produced via a proprietary Laux process in which pigments are heated up to 800°C. The resulting micronized pigments show no visible color shift at very high application temperatures and can be processed well above 300°C.
For reliable yellow coloration, the modular Colortherm Yellow product range covers light, saturated yellow shades and orange tones. These pigments are well suited for HD-PE, PS, ABS and PA, among others. Stefano Bartolucci, Global Market Segment Manager for Plastics at the Inorganic Pigments business unit at Lanxess, said: "The special feature of our Colortherm Yellow product range is the high flexibility in pigment selection." He added that thermal stability requirements vary by polymer: "In the case of coloring polyethylene, for example, it is sufficient for the pigments used merely not to exhibit any color changes at processing temperatures of around 240 °C. However, for applications using polyamide, polypropylene and polyphenylene sulfide, thermal stability of around 300 C is essential."
Lanxess conducts in-depth evaluations of pigment performance in polymer applications in its application technology laboratory, including automated measurements of heat stability in customer-specific formulations.
