Flame-retardent foam thanks to nanotube coating

According to NIST, the flammability of the nanotube-coated polyurethane foam was reduced 35 per cent compared with untreated foam. The coating also prevented melting and pooling of the foam, which generates additional flames that are a major contributor to the spread of fires.

In the US, fires in which upholstered furniture is the first item ignited account for about 6,700 home fires annually and result in 480 civilian deaths, or almost 20 per cent of home fire deaths between 2006 and 2010, according to the National Fire Protection Association.

The NIST technique squeezes nanotubes between two polymers and stacks four of these trilayers on top of each other.

The result is a plastic-like coating that is thinner than one-hundredth the diameter of human hair and has flame-inhibiting nanotubes distributed evenly throughout.

Developed by NIST materials scientists Yeon Seok Kim and Rick Davis, the fabrication method is described in the January 2014 issue of Thin Solid Films.