Fire cracker

Researchers are close to producing a fire-retardant synthetic cloth using nano materials. So far a team of specialists in fire chemistry, polymers and textiles from three

universities has developed a range of new, inherently flame- retardant polymers, and is now working on methods of turning them into fibres for weaving and knitting into textiles.

If successful the project will create a new generation of textiles with applications from soft furnishings to soldiers’ uniforms and, according to the project leaders, ‘in so doing will breathe new life into the UK’s declining textile industry’.

Synthetic fibres have always been much more flammable than their natural counterparts and are difficult to make fire retardant. Natural fibres tend to form a crust of char which retards the burning process; they do not melt or drip like burning synthetic fibres.

In 2003 the MoD and the EPSRC each granted £150,000 to a team of specialists from the universities of Bolton, Sheffield and Salford to investigate the use of nano composites in synthetic materials. It was believed that the barrier layer and char-forming properties of nano composites promised to improve fire resistance of synthetic fibres, while enhancing their physical and mechanical properties.