Chinese scientists have developed a fire-resistant wallpaper that can withstand temperatures of up to 1,000 degrees Celsius and can also detect a fire and trigger an alarm in cases of emergency.
It was designed by scientists from the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, reports the China Daily.
Most wallpapers are made of highly flammable plant cellulose fibres or synthetic polymers – materials that contribute to spreading fire instead of preventing it.
The new wallpaper, on the other hand, is made of an inorganic fire-resistant hydroxyapatite nanowire paper and a graphene oxide temperature sensor, which is attached to the back of the wallpaper through a drop-casting process using an ink containing graphene oxide.
It is then connected to the metal wire as an electrode, the report adds.
Graphene oxide is not electrically conductive at room temperature but can become conductive at high temperatures, triggering the fire alarm device.
The wallpaper is highly flexible and can be made into various shapes, dyed different colours, and printed with commercial printers.
The research was published in the journal ACS Nano in March.
The China Daily quoted Zhu Yingjie, the team leader, as saying that the research team was exploring low-cost mass production technology.
He said they were also looking into more applications of the new fire-resistant inorganic paper which might be used in other fields such as preserving important paper documents, battery separators, flame-retardant fibre-optic cables, catalytic paper, and flexible electronics.
