This Fire Alarm Wallpaper Might Soon Be a Household Standard

The smaller the gadget, the better, yes? This might not exactly be true in this case. While fire alarms have been designed to be smaller and less intrusive, it would be hard to beat a “fire alarm wallpaper”.

Recently revealed by researchers at the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, the fire alarm wallpaper is made of materials that are environmentally-friendly. Some of these materials are also found in bone, hormones, and teeth.

The wallpaper not only sends out an alarm in case of fire, but it is also fire-resistant to a certain degree. According to Professor Ying-Jie Zhu, the lead researcher, “Compared with flammable commercial wallpaper, the fire-resistant wallpaper is superior owing to its excellent nonflammability, high-temperature resistance, and automatic fire alarm function.”

Zhu further explains that “the fire-resistant wallpaper has a white color, mechanical robustness, and high flexibility, it can be processed into various shapes, dyed with different colors, and printed with a commercial printer. Therefore, the fire alarm fire-resistant wallpaper has promising applications in high-safety interior decoration to save human lives and reduce the loss of property in a fire disaster.”

The researchers have proven their concept. Now, what’s left is to figure out the scalability and mass production so that it can be affordable.