Fires are the sort of thing that the average person doesn’t worry about stopping until it erupts – but by the time a fire has ignited, it is often too late. Fire and flame retardant chemicals work to protect us before we know that we need protecting. These chemicals add safety to our homes, cars, electronics, and even clothing. Fire and flame retardants work to battle fires at every point of the cycle: insulating materials and preventing initial ignition through endothermic degradation and thermal shielding, limiting decomposition of materials to slow the release of flammable gases that make fires self-sustaining, and dilution of these flammable gas concentrations in the air through radical quenching. They work to prevent fires before they can start, and when that fails, they slow the spread of fire to minimize damages and maximize time to escape.

The challenges faced by this industry primarily stem from environmentally conscious consumers who question chemicals’ effectiveness and suspect them of causing various health hazards. Fire safety technology works to allay these concerns by making major formulation improvements to enhance safety while eliminating or reducing potential adverse health effects. Utilizing green chemistry, new compounds can be keyed directly into the structure of materials to enhance their abilities to prevent combustion and slow the spread of fire without producing flame retardant emissions into the environment.