An invisible coating to make wood fireproof

One of the biggest challenges for wood is its flammability. When untreated, wood or timber can burn and combust easily.

If the wood is harvested from sustainably managed forests, it also has a lower Carbon footprint when compared to steel or concrete buildings.

An invisible coating that can "fireproof" wood has been invented by scientists.

In comparison, the new invisible coating developed allows for natural beauty of timber to shine and yet can still provide a flame barrier when "activated" by fire. This fireproof coating is just 0.075 millimetres thick and is highly transparent, making it invisible to the naked eye.

When heated up by a hot flame, a series of complex chemical reactions happens, causing the coating to become a char that expands to more than 30 times its original thickness. This char prevents the fire from combusting the wood underneath and insulating the wood underneath from the high heat.

This is important as in a case of a fire, construction materials need to be fire retardant and relatively smoke-free to allow for the safe evacuation of occupants in a building.