Flame Retardants To Reduce Fire Risks
With wildfires currently burning down entire neighborhoods in Los Angeles, or quite recently in Hawaii, it is clear why any technology helping with preventing or slowing fire should be pursued.
There are many angles from which we could tackle this issue. From better use of data to different construction materials, or different management of water and forested areas.
However, we are still going to keep using a lot of flammable materials in our daily life, simply because too many useful products happen to be flammable.
Another possibility is using fire retardants, chemicals that reduce the risks of catching fire and the speed at which a fire goes out of control. This can make a radical difference, as a slower fire will be more likely to be extinguished early or give more time for the fire department to arrive and bring the right equipment.
An issue is that many flame retardant chemicals are somewhat toxic, making them unpractical for many applications. One example is anything touching the human skin frequently, like cotton fabric. This could change thanks to the discovery of eight researchers at Texas A&M University, who have developed a new one-step flame retardant for cotton textiles.
They recently published their results in ACS Applied Polymer Materials, under the title “Evaporation Induced Flame Retardant Polyelectrolyte Complex for Cotton”.
Why Cotton?
Cotton is the most used textile globally, thanks to its excellent properties for making soft, comfortable, and breathable fabrics. It is used in clothing and upholstery and is a major contributor to flammable materials in homes (sofas, closets, towels, tablecloths, etc.), including those in close proximity to fire hazards (cooking areas, candles, cigarettes, etc.).
It is mostly composed of α-cellulose, an extremely flammable material. This makes anything made of cotton burn very quickly and completely.
Another reason to focus on cotton is that it would immediately open a massive market for any innovation targeting this material. And it still could likely be expanded to other materials later on.
How Flame Retardants Work
Most cotton flame retardants historically used were halogenated compounds that are now phased out because of their toxicity to humans. Alternative molecules have been explored by the chemical industry for many years, including phosphorus-, nitrogen-, silicon-, and boron-based chemistries.
The issue so far to find a good replacement has been one of cost. These alternative compounds need treatment in several steps, which cost more money as a result.
The way flame retardants work is by creating a char layer on top of the material when it burns, which blocks the expansion of the fire further. Most commonly, it is done by combining an acid source and a carbon source.
Sometimes, a “blowing agent” is added, which decomposes from heat into nonflammable gases that dilute the flammable gases and weaken the flames.
One-Step Flame Retardant
The researchers looked into a class of chemicals called polyelectrolytes: polyethylenimine (PEI) as the blowing agent and sodium hexametaphosphate (PSP) as the acid source. In the case of cotton, the flammable material itself is the source of carbon.
Source: ACS Applied Polymer Materials
This mixture is nontoxic and would be ideal for mass production on all cotton fabrics. But so far, only 2-step processes to apply and bound polyelectrolytes to cotton were known.
The researchers discovered they could use ammonia (NH3) as a volatile base to bind PEI and PSP to the cotton when the ammonia evaporates. They found that they could apply the whole mixture to cotton and evaporate the ammonia in only one step.
Finding The Right Method
Various ratios of PEI-to-PSP were explored to find the optimal composition to reduce cotton’s flammability.
The resulting cotton fibers were examined under an electron microscope (Scanning Electron Microscope – SEM), allowing us to measure the fire retardant absorption by the cotton fibers.
Source: ACS Applied Polymer Materials
Another factor measured was the durability of the treatment against rinsing. As cotton fabrics are likely to be cleaned frequently, any flame retardant that does not handle water exposure and rinsing will have little usefulness in real-life conditions.
“This technology can be optimized to quickly, easily, and safely flame retard many flammable materials, offering vast protection in everyday life, saving money and lives of the general population.”
Maya D. Montemayor – Graduate student in the Department of Chemistry at Texas A&M.
For some of the ratios used, the material gets partially washed off the first rinse, but then the rest of the properly bonded flame retardant stays attached to the cotton fibers.
Source: ACS Applied Polymer Materials
Strongly Reduced Flammability
The treated cotton releases a lot less heat than the untreated (neat) cotton when measured in energy per gram of cotton (W/g). The temperature of the combustion was also lowered.
Source: ACS Applied Polymer Materials
When performing a so-called “vertical flame” test, the researchers also observed that the acid in the mix was responsible for the bounding to the cotton, protecting the flame retardant from washing off when the fabric was rinsed.
Source: ACS Applied Polymer Materials
Moving Forward
These initial results are a big deal for the cotton industry and the flame retardant-producing companies, as they could open the way to a cheaper and easier generalized treatment for all cotton products.
The researchers are now evaluating with industrial partners how this process could be expanded beyond cotton to any carbon-rich material, like wood, fabric, foam, and other textiles.
“This cutting-edge research offers Texas A&M recognition as one of the leaders of this technology and the opportunity for further development with external companies.
TEES is licensing this and similar technologies to companies for various applications.”
Dr. Jaime Grunlan,- Leland T. Jordan ’29 Chair Professor in the J. Mike Walker ’66 Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M.
What Else Can Be Done About Fire Risks
New technologies for better controlling fire can be done from many angles. For example, here are a few we previously covered:
- AI Predictions: Satellite images and accurate weather predictions can be used to better predict the risk of wildfire occurrence, their severity, and how to put them under control.
- Forest Management Systems: Better, more traceable forest management tools can help better predict forests’ health, and productivity and how to better care for them. It can, in turn, be used to reduce the amount of dead wood and other fire hazards.
- Mass Timber Construction: It might look odd that timber construction could help reduce fire risks. But mass timber is a new technology agglomerating wood in beams as strong as steel as well as making it fire resistant, due to its extreme density. Mass timber naturally forms the char layer that fire retardants use to limit flammability. We can imagine PEI-PSP flame retardants could help improve it further.
- Heat-Activated Hydrogels: To stop wildfire from spreading, new hydrogels could be used instead of the more commonly used foam, retaining water twice as long. This can make a massive difference in the protection of homes ahead of wildfires.
- Drones: Firefighting drones could be an extra tool in the firemen’s arsenal, able to go where it would be too hazardous for firemen to go. You can read more about a company producing such drone, Textron, in “2025’s Top Drone Companies Leading the Aerial Revolution”.
Investing In Flame Retardants
Flame retardants are an often ignored, but very important product from the chemical industry that save countless lives daily.
It is one but many of the specialty chemicals part of modern life, making up a $8.63B market in 2022 and expected to grow 7.1% CAGR until 2030.
Source: Grand View Research
You can invest in chemical industry-related companies through many brokers, and you can find here, on securities.io, our recommendations for the best brokers in the USA, Canada, Australia, the UK, as well as many other countries.
If you are not interested in picking specific companies, you can also look into ETFs like the iShares STOXX Europe 600 Chemicals UCITS ETF (EXV7) or the Fidelity Select Chemicals Portfolio (FSCHX) which will provide a more diversified exposure to capitalize on the chemical industry.
Flame Retardant Company
ICL
ICL Group Ltd (ICL +0.97%)
ICL is a global chemical company based in Israel, with a strong position in fire retardants, notably a #1 position in solutions for electronics, including EVs and AI, and construction, using either bromine or phosphorous.
It is also active in fertilizers, especially phosphate and potash, as well as phosphate for industrial products like battery materials.
Source: ICL
The company is overall a leader in the industries it occupies, with a 33% market share in industrial products and 20% in phosphate solutions. Overall, its sales are diversified over the globe.
The largest part of the company’s EBITDA is from sales of potash and phosphate solutions.
Source: ICL
Fire retardant is only a part of the company’s activity, and it is also investing actively in new technology. It is notably financing startups and doing its own R&D in next-generation fertilizers, including:
- Photocatalytic nitrogen fixation at proximity to the plant.
- On-farm electrochemical production of ammonia or nitrates.
- Biostimulants to improve fertilizers’ bioavailability.
- Improvement of phosphorus availability through plant extracts, microorganisms (PSB – Phosphorus Solubilizing Bacteria), and chemicals.
As a low-cost bromine and potash producer, the company is well-positioned to handle even low fertilizer prices, while betting on new innovative solutions to create growth in the future.
It could also benefit from a growing demand for fire retardants, even before one-step treatments like the one discussed in this article come onto the market.
