Fires are dangerous. Thousands of people have died from it. Hence, houses need to be equipped with extinguishers that can stop the deadly flames from spreading. One would assume that the best way to stop these is from substances that are made from water.
However, researchers have now discovered the perfect solution to stop fires – and that’s through lava. Yes, the hot lava that comes from volcanoes are made of compounds that can effectively stop the flames and extinguish them.
All About the Powerful Lava
Lava is considered one of the hottest substances that is found on the Earth’s surface. Volcanoes spew them out, and when left to flow, these can destroy everything in its tracks. This is also a source of inspiration for the design of a potentially new life-saving form of fire retardant coating.
This was discovered by a research team that was led by University of Southern Queensland chemical engineer and Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Professor Pingan Song. They have developed a non-toxic, fire extinguishing coating that comes with the ability to save homes, buildings, and many forms of establishments from being engulfed in these dangerous flames.
Professor Song said that the lava helped him come up with the idea of a hybrid coating that would melt and then gradually form a flowing but non-combustible ceramic layer when this is exposed to high heat that usually comes from fires. “Melton lava is like a viscous flowing liquid but non-flammable,” Professor Song said.
He added, “Once cooled, it solidifies to become a ceramic layer that does not support fire. Inspired by this interesting phenomenon, we designed a fire retardant coating that can create a non-combustible ceramic layer which can offer fire protections for the underlying substrates, just like a fire shield.”
Professor Song said that when the lava-made coating is sprayed on building materials, such as thermal insulation foam, timber and steel structures, during construction could actually stop disasters like the 2017 Grenfell Tower blaze in London. This was when 72 people died from something that could have been avoided. “Polymer foams were identified as the main cause of recent catastrophic disasters, particularly the Grenfell Tower fire,” he said.
“Solid wood materials, also widely used in buildings but extremely combustible, can also trigger fires, like the Notre-Dame de Paris blaze in 2019,” The professor explained. Yes, fire retardants have been used in building materials for years now. Sadly, many of the products out there are not that effective. They are also expensive and at times, challenging to produce in mass.
Professor Song explained how their version gave much more efficient protection. These can also be used in other application settings, such as wooden furniture, mining, tunnels and transportations. “Our fire retardant coating produces a very robust and thermally stable ceramic layer, compared to existing coatings, which usually produce a protective layer that is fragile and degrades at high temperatures,” he added.
Professor Song talked about their discovery and said that the fire-retardant coating still has to undergo further testing and refinement. They have to put in a lot of work before it could be commercialized and produced for everyone to use. He hopes that they will be able to achieve this in the next three years.
The research had been financially supported by an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship. This was published in the journal Matter.
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