Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Commons^™

New Technologies For Effective Forest Fire Fighting, João Gomes

João F Gomes

Efficient fire extinction with water could be greatly improved by using superabsorbent polymers, added to the water used for fire fighting, or sprayed over surfaces of combustible materials in order to protect them from fire. Specially developed superabsorbent polymers such as acrylamide/2-acrylamide-2-methyl-propane-sulphonate (AA/AMPS) seem to be particularly efficient for this purpose. In terms of water absorption, the experimental tests performed, showed that the optimal composition of this polymer is 30:70 AMPS versus AA, using 0.5% of bis-acrylamide (BA) as crosslinking agent.