All-Natural Mixture Yields Promising Fire Retardant
GAITHERSBURG, MD - What sounds like fixings for a wizard’s potion — a dash of clay, a dab of fiber from crab shells, and a dollop of DNA — actually are the ingredients of promising “green” fire retardants invented by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
Applied to polyurethane foam, the bio-based coatings greatly reduced the flammability of common furniture padding after it was exposed to an open flame. Peak and average rates of heat release — two key indicators of the magnitude of a fire hazard — were reduced by 48% and 77%, respectively, the NIST team reports in the journal Green Materials.*