Fire-retardant technologies have never been more important. In the USA, approximately 3,400 deaths per year are a direct result from fires. Forty years ago, people had an average of 17 minutes to escape a burning building but today, that window has shrunk to just 3 minutes.

As cities grow, the need for high-density office and residential homes will increase along with the need to prevent, mitigate and control the risk of fires.

Unfortunately, the advancement of effective fire-retardant additives has been hampered by chemical safety issues with some of the reagents used. Yet research from the University of Adelaide has identified graphene materials offering a new route to protecting flammable items from fire using environmentally safe additives.

Graphene has been identified as a new, effective carbon-based fire retardancy additive that does not present any regulatory issues.

First Graphene Ltd has developed FireStop™, a fire-retardant coating for the protection of timber. The next phase will be to develop fire retardant graphene additives for the plastics and composites market.

In timber framed construction the benefits of FireStop™ include: