Halogen-free Flame Retardants: Optimal Selection for Better Performance

Richard Hull is a Professor of Chemistry and Fire Science at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan). 

His work has focussed on fire retardants, fire gas toxicity and fire science.  He has over 100 peer-reviewed publications in fire chemistry, and research income exceeding £2 M. 

His recent work has included unravelling the complexities of the decomposition and burning behaviour of polyetheretherketone (PEEK), stabilised both by carbon fibre and CNTs, using TGA, cone calorimetry and pyrolysis models and the microscale combustion calorimeter, developed at the FAA in the US.  He has pioneered the use of naturally occurring mixtures of huntite and hydromagnesite in EVA cable sheathing as an alternative to the environmentally harmful use of PVC or EVA/ATH (Hungarian red mud catastrophe 2010), and the development of halogen free fire retardant rubber formulations.

He co-edited Fire Retardancy of Polymers: New Strategies and Mechanisms with Prof Kandola from Bolton, published by the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2009, and co-edited a 700 page reference work Fire Toxicity with Dr Anna Stec from UCLan, published by Woodhead/Elsevier in 2010.