Direct air-pyrolysis offers an efficient and attractive route for functional porous carbon materials. However, existing strategies severely suffer from specific precursors, limited yields, and additional agents, posing significant challenges for the scalable, direct conversion of biomass under open-air conditions. Herein, inspired by the intumescent flame-retardant design in polymer science, we present a simple phosphorus (P)-assisted, air-pyrolysis strategy that directly converts various biomass into P-doped porous carbon materials, exhibiting excellent electromagnetic wave absorption. By leveraging various commercial P-containing reagents as synergistic charring/doping agents and biomass with multi-hydroxyls as carbon sources, the mixtures were calcined directly in open-air without inert gas protection. Under the superior catalytic dehydration and charring effects of P, thermally stable P-doped intumescent chars were rapidly fabricated at elevated temperatures, resulting in high-quality porous carbons. Typically, P/PC-1 exhibits the specific surface area of 290.2 m2 g−1 and a high mass yield of up to 15.5%, achieving an effective absorption bandwidth of 7.68 GHz at 2.27 mm thickness and a minimum reflection loss of up to −77.70 dB (over 99.99999% absorption efficiency). Notably, our P-assisted air-pyrolysis strategy is applicable and scalable for various biomass species. This work demonstrates a facile, direct, and efficient air-pyrolysis carbonization strategy, offering scalable and economical routes for preparing biomass-derived functional porous carbon materials.

Additive-type flame-retarded flexible polyurethane foam (FPUF) that is widely used in furniture cushions and mattresses has generated great benefits in stopping fire accidents. However, these FPUFs are facing interface issue-caused long-lasting flame retardancy and mechanical durability dilemma. Inspired by the adaptive protective mechanism of skin, we developed a humidity-responsive self-adaptive adhesion polymer-based complex integrating fire safety requirements. As a flame-retardant additive, incorporating 11.9 wt% PPC significantly enhanced the limiting oxygen index (LOI) from 18.6 % to 27.6 %, surpassing the conventional upper threshold (26.0 %) for most flame-retardant FPUFs. Remarkably, the modified foam achieved UL-94 V-0 rating in vertical burning tests-a critical fire safety benchmark previously difficultly attainable for standard FPUFs. After accelerated hygrothermal aging (80 degrees C, 95 % RH), the composite retained almost unchanged flame retardancy (LOI = 26.5 %, UL-94 V-0) with minimal mechanical degradation (2.3 % tensile strength loss vs. 14.6 % for neat FPUF). The exceptional durability originates from a skin protection mechanism: Moisture activation induces controlled surface adhesion between PPC and FPUF, forming an adaptive tight physical barrier through water-mediated hydrogen bond reorganization, that inhibits hydrolytic/oxidative attacks on the polyurethane matrix and simultaneously suppress the migration of PPC. Moreover, this protective process enables recurrent operation through self-renewable cycles, achieving durability enhancement in material systems. This work utilizes the moisture in a hygrothermal environment, the condition of deteriorating material performance has been transformed into a defense method, solving the problem of hygrothermal aging faced by FPUF, providing a novel material design paradigm for maintaining the functionality/properties of polymer composites in harsh hygrothermal environments.

High-efficiency and broadband microwave absorption materials have emerged as critical enablers for advanced military stealth equipment. Although hierarchical hollow structures have demonstrated considerable potential, achieving precise multiscale microstructural control for the synergistic enhancement of electromagnetic attenuation and impedance matching remains challenging. Herein, a hierarchical engineering strategy based on a polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA)@Ti3C2Tx template is proposed to construct a series of Ti3C2Tx-based composite hollow microspheres with tunable cavity structures and tailorable functional units. Using Ti3C2Tx@TiO2 as a model, the cavity size-dependent microwave absorption behavior is systematically investigated, revealing that a cavity diameter of 3–10 μm optimally reconciles impedance matching with internal electromagnetic wave (EMW) propagation. Building upon this structure-performance correlation, magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles, dielectric MoNiS nanosheets, and porous Co/C nanocubes are selectively integrated onto the Ti3C2Tx surface, constructing diverse hollow heterostructures with complementary loss mechanisms. The optimized cavity structure enhances impedance matching, while the tailored functional components introduce synergistic magnetic, dielectric, and interfacial polarization losses. By leveraging accurate hierarchical engineering to optimize structure-performance relationships, this research provides new insights for the rational design of superior microwave absorbers and customized applications in military equipment.

Flame-retardant and antibacterial natural fabrics have garnered rising concern due to the effective protection from environmental threats like fire and microbes. Here, we demonstrate an aromatic siloxane derived multifunctional protective coating that simultaneously exhibits excellent flame retardancy and antibacterial property for cotton and silk fabrics. The construction of this coating leverages a specially designed alpha-aminophosphonatedoped covalent bonding structure, capable of integrating high transparency, strong interfacial adhesion, as well as durable resistance to moisture and friction. Notably, the as-prepared coating show a high light transmittance close to 100 % in the visible light region of 400-800 nm. The combination of phosphorus (P), nitrogen (N) and silicon (Si) provide high-efficiency flame retardancy, enabling coated natural fabrics self-extinguishing behavior, desired LOI value and low heat release upon fire exposure. Furthermore, the unique covalent bonding alpha-aminophosphonate structure imparts excellent antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. The relative resulting improvement in cohesive energy confers high interfacial adhesion (2.7 MPa shear strength), further contributing to moisture durability and mechanical stability. This work offers a new avenue for creating durable protective coatings towards transparency, strong adhesive, efficiency flame retardancy and antibacterial properties.

Daytime sub-ambient radiative cooling offers a passive means of reducing surface temperatures below ambient levels under direct sunlight. Existing hybrid systems that combine radiative and evaporative cooling rely exclusively on broadband radiative coolers, which are effective only for sky-facing horizontal surfaces. However, their performance deteriorates sharply in vertical orientations, such as building façades and vehicle exteriors, where angular limitations and environmental heat gains significantly diminish cooling efficiency. Here, we present a robust approach that achieves persistent sub-ambient daytime cooling on vertical surfaces by integrating a spectrally selective thermal emitter with a self-hygroscopic hydrogel. The selective emitter minimizes radiative heat influx from the ground and surroundings while protecting the hydrogel, which absorbs atmospheric moisture at night and drives evaporative cooling during the day. Under direct solar irradiation of 900 W m-2, our system achieves temperature reductions of up to 6.1 °C below ambient temperatures. This durable and orientation-tolerant cooling strategy provides a practical pathway to extend passive cooling technologies from horizontal to vertical and other non-traditional surfaces.

Polycarbonate (PC), a high-performance engineering thermoplastic widely used in aerospace, electronics, and automotive industries, has inherent flammability. Traditional halogen-based flame retardants and PFAS-derived anti-dripping agents (e.g., PTFE) pose environmental and health risks via hazardous emissions and bioaccumulation. This review examines recent advances in transitioning PC to halogen-free, PFAS-free flame-retardant technologies. Key PFAS-free innovations highlighted include: (1) synergistic multi-element systems and bio-derived additives that achieve UL-94 V-0 ratings at low loadings; (2) copolymerization and multilayer co-extrusion technologies that enable PFAS-free anti-dripping performance. The review further identifies unresolved challenges (e.g., balancing transparency/strength with flame-retardant efficiency, scaling bio-based additives) and future pathways (machine learning for material discovery, plasma surface functionalization). Ultimately, it emphasizes that cross-sector collaboration (academia-industry) is essential to harmonize fire safety, environmental sustainability, and material functionality—providing an actionable framework for developing next-generation high-performance PC aligned with global sustainability goals.

Ultra-low reflection aerogels are promising materials for electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, effectively attenuating radiation while minimizing secondary reflection. However, current approaches typically rely on asymmetric multilayer architectures prepared via supercritical/freeze-drying, which have limitations like unidirectional protection, energy-intensive fabrication, limited mechanical integrity, and poor environmental stability. Here, inspired by reinforced concrete architecture, we report a durable, omnidirectional ultra-low-reflection aerogel featuring an integrated absorption/reflection skeleton, fabricated via a scalable ambient pressure drying method. A flexible alginate-gelatin-poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) matrix is designed as the “concrete” microwave-absorbing phase, encapsulating rigid, highly conductive carbon nanotube “rebar” components that serve as the primary shielding framework. This integrated architecture reinforces the porous network, prevents collapse during ambient drying, and facilitates multistage electromagnetic wave absorption, reflection, and reabsorption within the aerogel matrix. The resulting aerogel achieves exceptional EMI shielding effectiveness (51.5 dB) and an omnidirectional ultra-low reflection coefficient (0.015), along with excellent durability, mechanical strength, and flame retardancy.

To address the challenge of high brittleness of TiB2 coating, this study proposed a strategy that TiSi2 was utilized to toughen the TiB2 coating. TiB2/TiSi2 nanomultilayer coatings (samples C7/1, C7/3 and C7/7) with varied target current ratios (ITiB₂:ITiSi₂ of 7:1, 7:3 and 7:7 respectively) were deposited by mid-frequency magnetron sputtering. A TiB2 coating was deposited for comparative study. The chemical composition, microstructure, mechanical properties and tribological performance of the coatings were systematically investigated by EPMA, XPS, SEM, XRD, TEM, nanoindentation, Vickers indentation, scratch test and ball-on-disk wear tester. The results showed that as the target current ratio decreased, the content of TiSi2 in the TiB2/TiSi2 nanomultilayer coatings exhibited a monotonically increasing trend. The TiB2/TiSi2 nanomultilayer coating prepared with the target current ratio of TiB2 to TiSi2 (7:3) exhibited a pronounced preferred orientation along the TiB2 (0001) crystallographic plane, along with weak diffraction peaks of TiSi2. Compared with the TiB2 coating, the mechanical properties of sample C7/3 were significantly improved, characterized by high hardness (53.5 GPa), high toughness (CRPs were used for semi-quantitative evaluation of coating toughness, with CPRs = 369.6), and high adhesion strength (Lc2 = 47.8 N). The synergistic enhancement of hardness and toughness of C7/3 was attributed to its preferred orientation along the TiB2 (0001) plane, the presence of multiple interfaces, and an appropriate amount of amorphous TiSi2 phase. In the wear tests, the wear rate of C7/3 was reduced by at least one order of magnitude compared with that of the TiB2 coating. C7/3 demonstrated the best wear resistance, characterized by the lowest friction coefficient (0.40) and the lowest wear rate (1 × 10−7 mm3·N−1·m−1). The wear mechanism of C7/3 had changed from the severe abrasive-adhesive mixed wear observed in the TiB2 coating to mild abrasive-oxidation-adhesive mixed wear. This study confirmed the feasibility of the TiB2/TiSi2 nanomultilayer structure prepared by optimizing the target current ratio in achieving the synergistic enhancement of hardness, toughness and wear resistance of TiB2 coatings.

Radiative cooling offers an energy-efficient pathway for dissipating heat from devices such as data centers, power systems, and industrial equipment. Yet, its application is constrained by the prevalence of vertical surfaces and the limited effectiveness of existing materials for objects operating above ambient temperature. Here, we report a thermal radiator featuring broadband mid-infrared emission and elevated shortwave emissivity (2.5-8 µm, 91.4%), designed to enhance radiative coupling with both the atmosphere and surrounding structures. This radiator significantly outperforms conventional selective emitters regarded as optimal for vertical ambient cooling. Under direct sunlight and a 600 W m-2 heat load on a vertical surface, the radiative cooler reduces device temperatures by approximately 18.6 °C and 27.0 °C compared to a selective emitter and an uncoated surface, respectively. The material further exhibits exceptional mechanical robustness, thermal stability, and environmental durability, highlighting its potential for real-world thermal management in vertically oriented, high-temperature systems.

Rigid polyurethane foams are pivotal materials for energy-saving engineering but pose substantial fire risks. Existing intrinsic flame-retardant strategies often overlook the synergistic charring/aging-enhancing effects and focus primarily on initial fire safety, leading to limited flame retardancy. Achieving robust synergism with stimuli-induced enhancement for satisfactory fire safety and long-term reliability remains significant challenge. Herein, we propose a synergistic carbonization/dormancy smart strategy via phosphorus/boron-containing polyol (PB) that comprises both reactive alkyl hydroxyls and dormant B-OH groups. This design integrates the catalytic-charring/radical-scavenging and dormant-activated ability of PB, effectively endowing foams with notably low heat/smoke/toxics release while achieving impressive aging-enhanced fire safety. By employing boron synergist for phosphorus, the resultant 14.4 PB-RF exhibited a high oxygen index, highly reduced heat/ smoke release (-28.9%/-38.4%), and UL 94 HB-1 rating. When exposed to intense flame, it rapidly self-extinguished and formed a swollen protective char, blocking flame spread and achieving low backside temperature (<50.0 degrees C). Notably, elevated temperature-induced dehydration between dormant, free B-OH and active hydroxyl anchor boron firmly into foam matrix, resulting in the reconstruction of new flame-retardant networks. Unlike traditional phosphorus systems, this stimuli-responsive model effectively promotes boron retention during aging while also synergistically strengthening the hybrid barrier effect, achieving notably improved fire safety. After accelerated aging, the oxygen index further increased to 27.8% and even passing UL 94 V-0 rating, collectively revealing the high efficiency and aging-enhancing behavior of PB. This work emphasizes a new scalable stimulus-activated, synergistic flame-retardant model, offering a promising strategy for designing smart flame retardants that respond to environmental stimuli to enhance fire safety and long-term reliability over time.

Precise nanosheet organization across length scales remains a challenge in translating the intrinsic properties of two-dimensional (2D) materials into macroscopic porous architectures. Extending in-plane nanosheet order to long-range, three-dimensional (3D) frameworks without structural collapse has been elusive. Here, we report an ultralight MXene-graphene aerogel that exhibits isotropic nanosheet organization spanning from the nanoscale to macroscopic porous networks. This architecture is realized through alginate-induced liquid-crystalline assembly coupled with rapid ice-nucleation-driven compaction. The isotropic framework homogenizes capillary stresses during drying, enabling ambient-pressure fabrication of aerogels with an ultralow density of 9.0 mg cm- 3. Continuous long-range, in-plane isotropic stacking of nanosheets enables efficient electron transport along the pore walls, resulting in enhanced electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding performance. This work establishes a general strategy for constructing porous multiscale isotropic nanosheet architectures.

Water-based flame-retardant coatings have attracted more and more attention as versatile strategies for improving the fire safety of flammable polymeric materials. However, the perfect combination of environmental protection, water resistance, durability, optical transparency, and strong interface adhesion is still extremely challenging. Herein, we report a biobased, transparent, and multifunctional flame-retardant coating (GBPK-LDH) constructed from gum arabic, phytic acid, borax, and KH560, reinforced by layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanosheets. The coating has high optical transparency, excellent water resistance, and various organic solvent resistance. Due to the synergistic effect of abundant hydrogen bonds, dynamic borate interaction, and silane-induced interface coupling, GBPK-LDH coating has strong adhesion to different substrates, with a maximum shear strength of 1.73 MPa, and has a self-healing behavior triggered by humidity and temperature. When coated on flexible polyurethane foam (FPUF), the coated foam shows excellent flame retardancy and achieves a rapid self-extinguishing effect. It is worth noting that compared with the control FPUF, the peaks of heat release rate and total smoke production were reduced by 42.5 and 50.0%, respectively. Moreover, the GBPK-LDH coating also helps to improve the mechanical properties of FPUF, including a significant increase in tensile strength, while maintaining excellent resilience and constant thermal insulation. Furthermore, the coating can also provide effective fire protection for other flammable substrates, such as rigid polyurethane foam and wood, highlighting its wide applicability. This study proposes a sustainable and scalable strategy for the development of high-performance biobased multifunctional water-based coatings.

Polyamide 11 (PA11) is an attractive bio-based electroactive polymer for flexible piezoelectric devices because of its mechanical compliance, facile processability, and inherent polarity. However, its piezoelectric performance is still limited by the insufficient content of electroactive phases and the strong intermolecular hydrogen-bonding constraints that govern chain packing. Herein, we propose a mild and filler-free small-molecule modulation strategy that reconstructs the hydrogen-bond network of PA11 with hydroxyl-bearing modifiers to steer its crystallization pathway toward electroactive phases. Using 2,5-dimethyl-2,5-hexanediol (DMHD) as a typical hydroxyl-bearing modifier, we show that DMHD can competitively hydrogen-bond with PA11 amide groups, loosening native interchain constraints and promoting the transition from the weakly electroactive, antiparallel α phase to the electroactive δ′ phase. Benefiting from the synergistic optimization of crystal structure and intermolecular interactions, the PA11/DMHD composites exhibit markedly enhanced piezoelectric output performance. In particular, the optimized PA11/DMHD7-based device delivers an open-circuit voltage of 13.05 V and a short-circuit current of 404 nA, approximately three times higher than those of pristine PA11, shows a stable linear response in the 1–5 N range, and maintains reliable output over 1800 loading cycles. Meanwhile, the device demonstrates practical applicability in human-motion monitoring and pressure sensing. This work provides a mild, scalable and filler-free strategy for crystal-phase engineering and performance optimization of polyamide-based piezoelectric polymers, offering promising prospects for wearable electronics and self-powered devices.

Si-doped TiB2 and undoped TiB2 coatings were deposited by mid-frequency magnetron sputtering. The effects of Si doping concentration (1.8 at.% and 8.9 at.%) on the microstructure, mechanical properties and tribological performance of TiB2 coating were investigated. The results showed that the undoped TiB2 coating exhibited a hexagonal TiB2 structure with (001) plane as the preferred orientation, a hardness of up to 51.2 +/- 3 GPa. The TiB2 coating with low-concentration (1.8 at.%) Si doping exhibited high hardness of 46.7 +/- 1.98 GPa and high fracture toughness. However, when the Si concentration increased to 8.9 at.%, the hardness of the coating decreased due to the increase of amorphous phase, and the fracture toughness of the coating decreased due to the presence of free Si. SiO2 tribofilms formed during the friction process reduced the interfacial adhesion between the 1.8 at.% Si-doped TiB2 coating and the titanium alloy grinding ball. The low-concentration (1.8 at.%) Si-doped TiB2 coating with the highest H/E (0.144) and H3/E2 ratios (0.97) exhibited the best adhesive wear resistance at 600 degrees C.

Impact-stiffening materials hold great promise in safeguarding human safety and apparatus integrity, serving as intelligent armor to mitigate transient impact and damage. However, high activation strain/rate, stiffening hysteresis, and inefficient energy dissipation of current materials pose significant challenges for matching extreme events. Herein, we report a nomadic molecular key-driven ultrahigh impact-stiffening strategy that leverages strain-rate-sensitive and covalent-active molecules to trigger covalent reconstruction and nanodomain agglomeration within polymers. Our design employs poly(styrene-thioctic acid) (PSTx) with a few thioctic acids (TA) as a critical stiffening key, in which disulfide/hydrogen bonds form energy-dissipating multi-networks, while phenyls act as precursors for physical crosslinking. Distinct from conventional mechanisms, force-activated TA functions as a molecular key that rapidly induces covalent crosslinking and phenyl nanodomain resembling, effectively "locking" networks and blunting cracks to achieve efficient impact-resistance. PSTx exhibits ultralow relaxation time (15.8 ms), exceptional stiffening response (2925 times), and stretchability over 4000%. Even at low strains/rates of 2000 s-1, it achieves high modulus (5.8 GPa), record strength (84.3 MPa), and excellent energy dissipation (12.4 MJ/m3), yielding 97% impact-force reduction. PSTx is processable into various wearable composites with outstanding impact force attenuation (+957%) and puncture resistance (+360%). This work resolves challenges of activation thresholds and stiffening hysteresis in impact-stiffening materials, providing a molecular key-switchable paradigm for intelligent systems.

The development of high-performance water-resistant and underwater adhesives is critical for advancing underwater technologies, yet achieving robust functional adhesion with long-term durability in complex underwater environments remains a significant challenge. Here, we present a hierarchical bonding network strategy to realize stable adhesion under harsh underwater conditions. By engineering a cross-linked polysiloxane backbone embedded with dense active interaction sites, including hydroxyl groups, benzene rings, cations, and hydrophobic moieties, we create synergistic multiscale interactions that amplify both cohesion and interfacial adhesion. The optimized adhesive achieves a strong bonding strength of 12.2 MPa and an underwater adhesion of 3.4 MPa on steel substrates and retains stability in corrosive underwater environments (acidic, alkaline, and saline solutions) over extended periods. It further demonstrates exceptional thermal resilience, maintaining functionality across temperatures from -196 to 150 °C. Integrating quaternary ammonium cations with long-chain alkanes endows the material with potent antibacterial activity (≥99.9999% inhibition) and the highest antifungal grade. This work provides a new avenue for designing high-performance multifunctional adhesives with strong adhesion, long-term durability, extreme temperature resistance, and antimicrobial properties, offering broad potential for applications in demanding underwater environments.

Element doping serves as a crucial strategy for surface modification of TiB2 coatings, improving the toughness, mitigating the residual stress and reducing the coefficient of friction of the coatings. Tungsten(W)-doped TiB2 coatings were deposited by magnetron sputtering with adjusting the working current of W target. The chemical compositions, microstructure, mechanical properties and tribological performance of the coatings were systematically investigated using EPMA, SEM, XRD, XPS, TEM, indentation tests and ball-on-disk tribometer. The results reveal that W doping weakens the crystallization of the TiB2 coatings. As the concentration of W increases, the content of TiB2 phase in the coatings decreases and that of WB2 phase increases. However, when the W concentration increases to 15.1 at.%, the content of WB2 in the coatings decreases again. The W element in the coatings mainly exists in the form of amorphous WB2 phase. The 10.7 at.% W-doped TiB2 coating demonstrates an optimal toughness and a moderate adhesion strength. W doping exhibits no statistically significant improvement in adhesive wear performance of the TiB2 coating at room temperature. However, the W-doped TiB2 coatings exhibit an improved anti-adhesive wear resistance at 600 degrees C, which is correlated with the presence of amorphous WB2 phase.

TiAlN, AlCrBN andTiAlN/AlCrBN coatings were deposited on cemented carbide by cathodic arc evaporation. SEM, TEM, XRD, nano-indentation test, Vickers indentation test, Rockwell indentation test and ball-on-disk tribological test were employed to characterize the microstructure, mechanical and tribological properties of the coatings. The results revealed that different from the fine columnar structure of TiAlN coating, AlCrBN coating exhibited an elliptical structure with grains sizes down to 5 nm.TiAlN/AlCrBN coating with approximately 24 nm thick modulation period demonstrated a polycrystalline structure consisting of fcc-(Al, Ti, Cr)N solid solution with (111) and (200) preferred orientation. The AlCrBN coating exhibited better wear resistance than TiAlN and TiAlN/AlCrBN coatings at room temperature due to its high fracture toughness and H/E. At room temperature, the wear mechanism of the three coatings was mainly abrasive wear. However, the main wear mechanism of TiAlN and TiAlN/AlCrBN coatings at 700 degrees C temperature transformed into obvious adhesive wear. TiAlN/AlCrBN coating exhibited excellent high-temperature oxidation resistance and stability due to the effect of interlayer interfaces, significantly reducing oxidation and adhesion phenomena under high-temperature wear conditions. Therefore, the main wear mechanism of TiAlN/AlCrBN coating still manifested as abrasive wear.

Biomass aerogels, considered promising sustainable alternatives to petroleum-derived insulators, highly depend on permanent covalent networks and energy- and resource-intensive drying processes to achieve multifunctionality. However, those features engender environmentally unsustainable manufacturing cycles and end-of-life disposal challenges. To tackle those issues, a facile and low-carbon air-drying method, assisted by supramolecular reversible assembly, was established for casting multifunctional biomass aerogels with high sustainability in the whole life cycle. By exploitation of the thermoresponsive supramolecular gels, the emulsified bubble templates within physical gels are significantly trapped, facilitating the fabrication of aerogels via air drying. Featuring a fiber-assembled secondary structure within the bubble-like pore architecture, this full biomass aerogel also manifests superior thermal insulation (30.4 mW m-1 K-1), high modulus (6.5 MPa), and flame retardance. Notably, benefiting from the thermoresponsive cross-linking networks, the full biomass aerogels exhibit full life-cycle sustainability, such as green fabrication, reparability during usage, closed-loop recyclability, and biodegradability after service life. The reused aerogels manifested comparable thermal conductivity (31.9 mW m-1 K-1) and compression modulus (4.6 MPa). This work eliminates the use of toxic reagents as well as energy- and resource-intensive procedures in both manufacturing and recycling, offering an environmentally benign strategy for fabricating next-generation biomass aerogels with high performance and less carbon footprint.

Polymeric materials pose potential fire hazards to both humans and property because of their intrinsic flammability and the toxic smoke generated by them upon burning. Lowering the risk by relying on traditional firefighting approaches is not timely and sufficient. Herein, analogous to wearing intelligent and responsive respirators, we introduced a universal smoke-suppression and flame-retardant strategy for flammable materials by forming a shield for protection and catalytic oxidation of smoke. Incorporating ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid tripotassium salt dihydrate (EDTA-K32H2O) into FPUF promotes rearrangement and cross-linking into char in the condensed phase during fire exposure. Additionally, the resulting alkali metal species act as active catalysts to further oxidize smoke, enhancing fire safety performance. Taking flexible polyurethane foam (FPUF) as an example, even in the absence of traditional flame-retardant elements, this foam demonstrates a significant reduction in specific smoke density (-54%) and total smoke release (-45%) for flexible polyurethane foam (FPUF), a high limiting oxygen index of 26.1%, rapid self-extinguishing performance, and robust overall mechanical properties. Moreover, this work offers exceptional fire protection for epoxy resin and waterborne polyurethane as well. Our work provides a facile strategy inspired by the protection of a respirator for high-performance firefighting.