The University of Southern Queensland (USQ) has been awarded Australian
Research Council (ARC) funding to develop fire-retardant thermal insulation
foams for safer buildings. It follows a horror start to the 2019-2020 fire season with homes lost
in areas across eastern Australia, and at a crucial time for global
building industries in the wake of London's Grenfell Tower blaze in 2017.
Federal Minister for Education Dan Tehan announced the ARC
Future Fellowships, including $888,000 in recognition of USQ’s
Dr Pingan Song and his role in developing potentially life-saving
technology.ARC Future Fellowships are designed to support excellent
mid-career researchers to undertake high quality
research of national and international interest. Dr Song, an expert in bio-nano polymers, said buildings around
the world still contained the same combustible cladding and
insulation materials, which put dwellers at risk of fire. “Almost
all building thermal insulation materials are made from polymer foams,
such as polyurethane and polystyrene foams,” said Dr Song.
“Unfortunately, these polymers are intrinsically flammable and
pose a high fire risk.” Dr Song is part of an international research team that includes
Zhejiang University (China), University of Lille (France),
Texas A&M University (USA), University of Auckland (New Zealand),
University of New South Wales, Deakin University, The University
of Melbourne and university of Queensland.
www.usq.edu.au
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