Nist Finds Nanofibers Ease Upholstered Furniture Fires

摘要

The National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) December 9 reported that it has found that adding carbon nanofibers to the foam used in upholstered furniture cushions can decrease fire spread. The reason is that the particles decrease the foam's viscosity, meaning that as it melts it drips less, which means that fire spreads more slowly. In small-scale tests, such foams performed well compared to foam treated with flame re-tardant chemicals, reducing flammability by about 35 percent.