Abstract
As the essential component(s), long-chain perfluorinated or short-chain perfluorinated ionic surfactants are required for effective aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF); nevertheless, the associated qualities of persistent pollution and toxicity have raised significant concerns. It has become critical to develop alternatives to the present fluorine component for AFFF to offset the negative effects. In this study, a short-chain perfluorinated nitrogen-heterocyclic nonionic amine oxide surfactant was combined with hydrocarbon surfactants and additives to prepare an AFFF concentrate. A laboratory technique was developed to evaluate the influence of ingredients on the performance of a 6% AFFF diluent, resulting in an improved AFFF formulation. The performance parameters for pool fire extinguishment and fire resistance of the AFFF formulation were encouraging, including a spreading coefficient of 5.4, foam expansion of 8.11, 25% drainage time of 4.6 min, extinguishing times for forceful application of 58 s, and fire burnback time of 18.6 min. In addition, the AFFF concentrate showed significant freezing resistance when stored at − 20 °C for an extended period of time. The formulation outperformed the technical standard criteria and has the potential to be used as a novel AFFF agent.
Graphical abstract
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ananth R, Snow AW, Hinnant KM, Giles SL, Farley JP (2019) Synergisms between siloxane-polyoxyethylene and alkyl polyglycoside surfactants in foam stability and pool fire extinction. Colloids Surf A 579:123686. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colsurfa.2019.123686
Association NFP (2008) Standard for evaluating aircraft rescue and fire-fighting foam equipment. National Fire Protection Association.
Boone JS, Vigo C, Boone T, Byrne C, Ferrario J, Benson R, Donohue J, Simmons JE, Kolpin DW, Furlong ET (2019) Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances in source and treated drinking waters of the United States. Sci Total Environ 653:359–369. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.10.245
Cserháti T, Forgács E, Oros G (2002) Biological activity and environmental impact of anionic surfactants. Environ Int 28:337–348. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0160-4120(02)00032-6
Czajka A, Hazell G, Eastoe J (2015) Surfactants at the design limit. Langmuir 31:8205–8217. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.5b00336
Fay JA (1971) Physical processes in the spread of oil on a water surface. Int Oil Spill Conf 1971:463–467. https://doi.org/10.7901/2169-3358-1971-1-463
Gao S, Cao Z, Niu Q, Zong W, Liu R (2019) Probing the toxicity of long-chain fluorinated surfactants: interaction mechanism between perfluorodecanoic acid and lysozyme. J Mol Liq 285:607–615. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molliq.2019.04.134
Ghisi R, Vamerali T, Manzetti S (2019) Accumulation of perfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) in agricultural plants: a review. Environ Res 169:326–341. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2018.10.023
Grant RL, Yao C, Gabaldon D, Acosta D (1992) Evaluation of surfactant cytotoxicity potential by primary cultures of ocular tissues: I Characterization of rabbit corneal epithelial cells and initial injury and delayed toxicity studies. Toxicology 76:153–76. https://doi.org/10.1016/0300-483X(92)90162-8
Han Y, Qin J (2011) Development and application status of foam extinguishing agent. Fire Saf Sci 20:235–240. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11460-011-0118-2
He Y-H, Sun Q, Xing H, Wu Y, Xiao J-X (2019) Cationic-anionic fluorinated surfactant mixtures based on short fluorocarbon chains as potential aqueous film-forming foam. J Dispersion Sci Technol 40:319–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/01932691.2018.1468262
Hetzer R, Kümmerlen F, Wirz K, Blunk D (2014) Fire testing a new fluorine-free AFFF based on a novel class of environmentally sound high performance siloxane surfactants. Fire Saf Sci 11:1261–1270. https://doi.org/10.3801/IAFSS.FSS.11-1261
Hinnant K, Giles S, Smith E, Snow A, Ananth R (2020) Characterizing the role of fluorocarbon and hydrocarbon surfactants in firefighting-foam formulations for fire-suppression. Fire Technol 56:1413–1441. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-019-00932-7
Kang W, Yan L, Ding F, Guo X, Xu Z (2019) Experimental study on fire-extinguishing efficiency of protein foam in diesel pool fire. Case Stud Therm Eng 16:100557. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csite.2019.100557
Kovalchuk N, Trybala A, Starov V, Matar O, Ivanova N (2014) Fluoro-vs hydrocarbon surfactants: why do they differ in wetting performance? Adv Colloid Interface Sci 210:65–71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cis.2014.04.003
Lattimer BY, Hanauska CP, Scheffey JL, Williams FW (2003) The use of small-scale test data to characterize some aspects of fire fighting foam for suppression modeling. Fire Saf J 38:117–146. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0379-7112(02)00054-1
Laundess AJ, Rayson MS, Dlugogorski BZ, Kennedy EM (2011) Small-scale test protocol for firefighting foams DEF (AUST) 5706: effect of bubble size distribution and expansion ratio. Fire Technol 47:149–162. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-009-0136-2
Li Q-X, Zhang G-H, Li Z-H, Yang H-L, Chen R-Q (2012) Forceful application of mass loss model and simulation of aqueous film-forming foam. J Nav Univ Eng 24:95–99+103. https://doi.org/10.7495/j.issn.1009-3486.2012.06.019
Moody CA, Field JA (2000) Perfluorinated surfactants and the environmental implications of their use in fire-fighting foams. Environ Sci Technol 34:3864–3870. https://doi.org/10.1021/es991359u
Pabon M, Corpart J (2002) Fluorinated surfactants: synthesis, properties, effluent treatment. J Fluorine Chem 114:149–156. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-1139(02)00038-6
Peshoria S, Nandini D, Tanwar R, Narang R (2020) Short-chain and long-chain fluorosurfactants in firefighting foam: a review. Environ Chem Lett 18:1277–300. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10311-020-01015-8
Rengel B, Mata C, Pastor E, Casal J, Planas E (2018) A priori validation of CFD modelling of hydrocarbon pool fires. J Loss Prev Process Ind 56:18–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlp.2018.08.002
Scheffey JL (2016) Foam agents and AFFF system design considerations. SFPE handbook of fire protection engineering. Springer, New York, pp 1646–706. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2565-0_47
Sheng Y, Lu S, Xu M, Wu X, Li C (2016) Effect of Xanthan gum on the performance of aqueous film-forming foam. J Dispersion Sci Technol 37:1664–1670. https://doi.org/10.1080/01932691.2015.1124341
Sheng Y, Jiang N, Lu S, Li C (2018a) Fluorinated and fluorine-free firefighting foams spread on heptane surface. Colloids Surf A 552:1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colsurfa.2018.05.004
Sheng Y, Lu S, Jiang N, Wu X, Li C (2018b) Drainage of aqueous film-forming foam stabilized by different foam stabilizers. J Dispersion Sci Technol 39:1266–1273. https://doi.org/10.1080/01932691.2017.1393432
Sontake AR, Wagh SM (2014) The phase-out of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and the global future of aqueous film forming foam (AFFF), innovations in fire fighting foam. Fire Eng 39:19–23
Specification M (1992) Fire extinguishing agent, aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) liquid concentrate, for fresh and seawater, Report No. MIL-F-24385F.
Wu W, Wang J, Zhou Y, Sun Y, Zhou X, Zhang A (2021) Design, synthesis and application of short-chained perfluorinated nitrogenous heterocyclic surfactants for hydrocarbon subphases. J Fluorine Chem 252:109919. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfluchem.2021.109919
Xu Z, Guo X, Yan L, Kang W (2020) Fire-extinguishing performance and mechanism of aqueous film-forming foam in diesel pool fire. Case Stud Therm Eng 17:100578. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csite.2019.100578
Yang Y, Peng M, Sha M, Fang J, Zhang D, Pan RM, Jiang B (2022) Study on aqueous film-forming foam extinguishing agent based on fluorocarbon cationic-hydrocarbon anionic surfactants mixture system. J Surfactants Deterg 25:205–216. https://doi.org/10.1002/jsde.12554
Yu X, Li F, Fang H, Miao X, Wang J, Zong R, Lu S (2021) Foaming behavior of fluorocarbon surfactant used in fire-fighting: the importance of viscosity and self-assembly structure. J Mol Liq 327:114811. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molliq.2020.114811
Zaggia A, Conte L, Padoan G, Bertani R (2010) Synthesis and application of perfluoroalkyl quaternary ammonium salts in protein-based fire-fighting foam concentrates. J Surfactants Deterg 13:33–40. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11743-009-1136-4
Zhang Y, Liao GX (2008) Experimental study on the characters and fire extinguishing properties of a new high spreading aqueous film forming foam (AFFF). Fire Saf Sci 1:1–7. https://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.1004-5309.2008.01.001
Zhou C, Wang Y (2020) Structure-activity relationship of cationic surfactants as antimicrobial agents. Curr Opin Colloid Interface Sci 45:28–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cocis.2019.11.009
Zhu X, Jia X, Zhang Y (2022) The physicochemical and fire extinguishing performance of aqueous film-forming foams based on a class of short-chain fluorinated surfactants. J Surfactants Deterg 25:193–204. https://doi.org/10.1002/jsde.12550
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial supports from the Scientific Research Project of Hubei Provincial Education Department (Q20213104), the Hubei Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (2022CFB854), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22277038).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
There are no conflicts to declare.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Information
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Supplementary file1 (MP4 381380 kb)
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Wu, WH., Wang, JL., Zhou, YQ. et al. Formulation and performance of aqueous film-forming foam fire extinguishing agent composed of a short-chain perfluorinated heterocyclic surfactant as the key component. Chem. Pap. 77, 6763–6771 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11696-023-02975-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11696-023-02975-1