Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

The reduction of fire risk, defined as the probability of the occurrence of fire and of fire hazard, which concerns the consequences of fires, has become a compulsory requirement for many applications of polymer materials. This most challenging task is affecting the use of a number of the fire retardants that have been instrumental in the exceptional expansion of polymer materials and modern technologies, because they are characterized by low fire risk and high versatility. However, their mechanism of fire retardancy involves potential hazards that are no longer considered acceptable. New fire retardant strategies are being developed aiming at materials complying with the sustainable development concept. Typically, the approach is shifting from flame extinguishment to flame prevention through flame starvation conditions induced by reduction of the thermal degradation of the polymer that supplies the fuel to the gas phase. In particular a breakthrough could come from chemical-physical processes taking place in the combustion of polymer nanocomposites.