Patent ID: 8173734

Claim:
A method of producing hybrid nanocomposite fire retardant materials comprising: treating clay platelets in an agglomerate of clay platelets with cobalt acetate, leaving cobalt particles on the clay platelets, chemically vapor depositing carbon on the platelets, growing carbon nanotubes on the platelets from the vapor deposition, separating the platelets with the grown carbon nanotubes from the clay platelets agglomerate by the grown carbon nanotubes, dispersing the platelets with the grown carbon nanotubes throughout a polymer, acid cleaning grown carbon nanotubes on the clay platelets before dispersing the platelets with the grown carbon nanotubes throughout the polymer, and chemisorbing an intumescent fire retardant material on the acid cleaned walls of carbon nanotubes grown on the clay platelets before dispersing the platelets with the grown carbon nanotubes throughout the polymer.