Structure, Property, Processing and Applications of Fire Retardant Materials: A Brief Review

Fire though an important component of life, the devastating effect of fire accidents is a threat to life and materials. Thus, the prevention and control of fire are becoming a serious concern. Hence, it is no wonder that fire retardant materials (FRMs) are slowly becoming ubiquitous in our daily lives. To control the fire in an unexpected fire accident or to prevent fire accidents FRMs are becoming essential requirements. To save material or life, fire retardant materials have been used for long knowingly or unknowingly. However, the understandings of chemistry and thermochemistry of materials helped for the development of efficient FRMs. Diversified materials, processing methods, and application modes have been developed, and all of them become specific depending on the nature and origin of the fire. In this regard, the inorganic FRMs form a distinct category due to their low cost, easier processing and wider choice of application mode without leaving any additional environmental burden either to land or the atmosphere. In this paper, different fire retardant materials and their properties with the abilities to tackle the fire at different temperatures are reviewed. The primary characteristics of fire and the thermal behaviours of FRMs as well as changes in behaviour/properties when FRMs are treated with certain synergistic systems are discussed. The importance of composition, morphology and structure of FRMs on the efficiency and applicability are discussed. Recent developments on the synthesis and characterisation of different types of FRMs and their composites have been elaborated. The effective applications and the commercial products based on their properties are also briefly covered. Overall, the review provides an overview of existing information on fire retardant materials in terms of their synthesis, processing, usability and limitations, with a prime attention on the process-structure-property relations of these materials.