A Fire Retardant Solution to Mitigate the Onset of Wildfires Yuan Xue1, Pik Hoi Lam2, Nicole Jacobsen3, Joshua Vilkas4, Xianghao Zuo1, Dr. Miriam Rafailovich1

1Dept of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 2Wilson Area High School, Easton, PA 3Plainedge High School, Massapequa, NY 4Hebrew Academy of Nassau County High School, Uniondale, NY ■ 100,000 wildfires per year, clear 4 to 5 million acres of land (U.S.) ■ Wildfire move at speeds of up to 14 mph ■ Camp’s Fire in California: Wildfire deadliest, 88 were killed ■ Common FR product: powder/foam/gel, Fast Facts long-term fire retardant ■ Pro: Flame retardants were used to help Why this research matters? slow down the fire propagating. ■ Con: toxic to aquatic areas/side effects for human/hard to control/used during the fire however couldn’t fully stop fire. Previous Work

RDP and PLA are grafted with the wood Wood/PLA Wood/RDP Wood/PLA/RDP cell wall, which increased impact strength and flame retardancy

Fail Fail V0 ■ What is RDP? ■ An engineered flame retardant used in a variety of resins like ABS plastics Our Hypothesis ■ What is APP? ■ Commercially produced flame retardant for paints and coatings, currently used The mixture of all components could in wildfire retardants in large potentially create an efficient fire quantities retardant solution that could be ■ What is Lactide Monomer? applied to leaves when in a low ■ Monomer form of PLA; viscosity form. previous study showed that it’s combination with cellulose and RDP could create fire retardant wood Burning Tests

The UL-94 standard for burning composite materials was not suitable for burning leaves

We adapted the test as follows:

1. Expose leaf to flame for 5 sec at a distance of 2-3 cm 2. Removed flame and recorded time to self-extinguish, burnt length, and color of char *Solution #7 is APP-RDP-LM Further Application

■ 16 CFR Part 1610: Standard for the Flammability of Clothing Textiles. (plain cloth) ■ Class I: Normal flammability, burn time is >3.5 second. (selling allowed in U.S)

■ Class II: Intermediate After one washing: flammability, not applicable. ■ Class III: Rapid and intense burning, burn time <3.5 second. Not to be sold The Team Acknowledgements Christmas Tree Fire Prevention

Miriam Rafailovich Yuan Xue Josh Vilkas

Stony Brook University ● Between 2013-2017, US fire departments responded to an annual average of 160 home fires that started with Christmas trees Quick Facts ● On average, fires caused: National Fire Prevention ○ 3 deaths ○ 15 injuries Association ○ $10 million in property damage ● Electrical distribution or lighting equipment was involved in 44% of the fires Christmas tree Room fills with toxic The entire room is catches fire after old gas and smoke as engulfed and the fire extension cord nearby furniture spreads to the rest sparks catches fire of the house

1-2 :00 seconds :01-:15 :15-:45 :45-:60 minutes

Highly porous nature Embers spread to of the tree draws, other flammable spreading flames objects, adding fuel faster to the fire Our Award Winning Solution A Non-Toxic Flame Retardant Hydrogel using Xanthan Gum Resorcinol Bis(diphenyl-phosphate) coated starch

Control - Left to dry without Test - Sprayed with solution and left to dry for 1 week solution for 1 week