Combustibility

As flammability is called in common parlance, the chemical property of materials to react with oxygen to release energy from radiation or heat. The flammability of a substance is a prerequisite for the combustion.

Classification of substances

The classification of substances according to their flammability is an important task for fire protection. A first classification is whether the substance is combustible or non-combustible.

A more important for everyday wear or even for fire properties of the fabric is flammability. Most organic compounds are flammable, but some plastics are flame retardant and can therefore be used with fire protection point of view. To check the combustion behavior of polymers used internationally flammability is performed according to UL94 usually.

Decisive for the fire behavior are the flash point, the focal point and the ignition temperature of a substance.

Examples

Oxygen - saturated compounds such as dinitrogen pentoxide can at most give off oxygen, but take no more. Therefore, they are not flammable.

Methane reacts with oxygen under light and heat release carbon dioxide and water and is therefore combustible.