Thermal Barrier Enhancement of Fire Suppression Agents through Intumescent Nanocomposite Additions

Current Class A & B man-portable fire suppression systems typically use aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) agents to spray a high pressure blast of foam extinguishing the fire and creating a film over the surface to prevent vapors from combusting and reigniting. While current AFFF fire containment and extinguishing techniques can be used to put out the fires, they do little to alleviate the remaining heat from the structure and surrounding area, leading to long wait times after extinguishing the fire before rescue personnel can safely enter the wreckage.To best fit the needs of rescue personnel, man-portable systems need to be supplied with fire suppression agents capable of not only extinguishing the fire but also limiting thermal exposure of first responders by cooling and shielding hot objects,allowing the wreckage to be able to be traversed and handled shortly after extinguishing.Lynntechs solution is to incorporate low cost intumescent nanocomposites of exfoliated synthetic clay nanoparticles with low thermal conductivities into existing AFFF systems.When the clay nanocomposites flash dry, an expanded insulating char coating of clay nanoparticles will be left behind shielding the surface from heat enabling it to be touched.