University of Bolton

The University of Bolton’s Institute for Materials Research & Innovation is a multi-disciplinary centre designed to cultivate research and innovation activities in collaboration with industry and other academic institutions. The internationally-recognised centre is well known for its strong applied materials science and engineering applications through the development of new, designer and novel nano- and micro- materials.

The Fire Materials group at IMRI is unique within the UK research environment and internationally recognised as a major player in the field of fire retardancy and flammability studies. The group has an established track record spanning over many years, leading the latest fire materials research within key applications in construction, energy storage and transportation.

The scope of current research areas includes textile and fibre fire and heat resistance, burning behaviour, novel flame retardant systems for bulk polymers, fire gas analysis, fire retardant mechanisms and associated modelling. The group is developing intelligent fire retardant nanoparticle and encapsulated material systems for use in the most demanding applications such as aerospace, maritime, land transport and protective textile areas.

Other research areas include nanodevices, physical and biochemical sensors, microactuators, microfluidics and lab-on-a-chip, flexible electronics and energy harvesting technologies.