Functional thermoelectric composite endows cellulose paper with superior fire safety.

Due to intrinsic defect of fire hazard security, improving the flame retardant capacity of paper is still insufficient in case of precombustion. Herein, we integrate the flame retardant with flame detection performance on the surface of paper, the restricts of graphene oxide (GO) are overcome between high thermoelectric performance and flexibility. A flexible lamellar thermoelectric composite (GO-LA-HP) is constructed through the co-assembly of GO, ascorbic acid (LA), and phenoxycycloposphazene (HP), lamellar GO-LA-HP avoid GO's toughness decline after modification, but also enhance fire sensitivity and flame resistance. The composite could significantly decrease the temperature rise stage (<150 °C), and trigger the fire-warning within 2 s. The hybrid coating composed of phytic acid/phosphoric acid (PyA/PA) and modified thermoelectric GO-LA-HP becomes excellent compatibility on the surface of the modified paper (GPP). GPP is able to extinguish itself immediately after leaving the fire in the vertical combustion, and display the excellent flame resistance. Furthermore, GPP's alarm signal could be timely generated as little as 3 s of contacting the flame, and the response time can exceed 600 s. According to the structure observation and analysis, the related synergistic fire detection reinforcing and flame-retardant mechanisms are also proposed and clarified.