Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Flame Retardant Cellulose-Based Hybrid Hydrogels for Firefighting and Fire Prevention

  • Published:
Fire Technology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Wildfires have been recognized as a natural incident in some forests, however, fire season is now more severe and extensive, even in tropical rainforests in which fire could have damaging impacts. A hydrogel is a 3-D polymeric structure encompassing cross-linked and hydrophilic macromolecules. In comparison with water, hydrogels have shown some superiorities in terms of water-binding, cooling, and sealing, which make them be applied in forest fire prevention programs for improving fire-extinguishing performance. In this study, an environmentally friendly phosphorus-modified methylcellulose/silica hybrid hydrogel was prepared based on the modified methylcellulose by 9,10-dihydro-9-oxa-10-phosphaphenanthrene-10-oxide–itaconic acid (DOPO-ITA) and silica nanoparticles. In the fire prevention experiments, the grass treated with the methylcellulose@DOPO-ITA@silica hybrid hydrogel shows self-extinguishing behavior, whereas those treated with ordinary water or methylcellulose hydrogel can be easily ignited after one week. In the firefighting experiments, the methylcellulose@DOPO-ITA@silica hybrid hydrogel displays a much shorter extinguishing time and lower consumption volume than ordinary water and the methylcellulose@DOPO-ITA hydrogel. This work presents an environmentally friendly, non-toxic, and biodegradable cellulose-based hybrid hydrogel for the fire prevention and firefighting of wildfires.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6
Figure 7
Figure 8
Figure 9

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Adamek M, Hadincova V, Wild J (2016) Long-term effect of wildfires on temperate Pinus sylvestris forests: Vegetation dynamics and ecosystem resilience. Forest Ecol Manag 380:285–295

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Chandra KK, Bhardwaj AK (2015) Incidence of forest fire in india and its effect on terrestrial ecosystem dynamics, nutrient and microbial status of soil. Int J Agric For 5(2):69–78

    Google Scholar 

  3. Tymstra C, Stocks BJ, Cai X, Flannigan MD (2020) Wildfire management in Canada: Review, challenges and opportunities. Prog Disast Sci 5:100045

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Manzello SL, Almand K, Guillaume E, Vallerent S, Hameury S, Hakkarainen T (2018) The growing global wildland urban interface (WUI) fire Dilemma: Priority needs for research. Fire Safety J 100:64–66

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Annual Report of the Insurance Commissioner. California Department of Insurance, (2007). http://www.insurance.ca.gov.

  6. Teague B, Mcleod R, Pascoe S (2009) Victorian bushfires royal commission “final report summary”, 2010

  7. Jiang WY, Wang F, Fang LH, Zheng XC, Qiao XH, Li ZH, Meng QX (2021) Modelling of wildland-urban interface fire spread with the heterogeneous cellular automata model. Environ Modell Softw 135:104895

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Center for Disaster Philanthropy. 2019–2020 Australian Bushfires (2020) https://disasterphilanthropy.org/disaster/2019-australian-wildfires/

  9. Korobeinichev OP, Shmakov AG, Shvartsberg VM, Chernov AA, Yakimov SA, Koutsenogii KP, Makarov VI (2012) Fire suppression by low-volatile chemically active fire suppressants using aerosol technology. Fire Safety J 51:102–109

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Vega C, Conde MM, McBride C, Abascal JLF, Noya EG, Ramirez R, Sese LM (2010) Heat capacity of water: A signature of nuclear quantum effects. J Chem Phys 132(4):046101

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Torquato S, Stell G (1981) Latent-heat of vaporization of a fluid. J Phys Chem 85(21):3029–3030

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Agueda A, Pastor E, Planas E (2008) Different scales for studying the effectiveness of long-term forest fire retardants. Prog Energ Combust 34(6):782–796

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Liodakis S, Tsapara V, Agiovlasitis IP, Vorisis D (2013) Thermal analysis of Pinus sylvestris L. wood samples treated with a new gel-mineral mixture of short- and long-term fire retardants. Thermochim Acta 568:156–160

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Kalabokidis KD (2000) Effects of wildfire suppression chemicals on people and the environment—a review. Global Nest J 2(2):129–137

    Google Scholar 

  15. Azizi S, Mohamad R, Rahim RA, Mohammadinejad R, Bin Ariff A (2017) Hydrogel beads bio-nanocomposite based on Kappa-Carrageenan and green synthesized silver nanoparticles for biomedical applications. Int J Biol Macromol 104:423–431

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Ibrahim S, Nawwar GAM, Sultan M (2016) Development of bio-based polymeric hydrogel: Green, sustainable and low cost plant fertilizer packaging material. J Environ Chem Eng 4(1):203–210

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Thakur S, Chaudhary J, Kumar V, Thakur VK (2019) Progress in pectin based hydrogels for water purification: Trends and challenges. J Environ Manage 238:210–223

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Kim BS, Shin YC (2007) pH-sensitive swelling and release behaviors of anionic hydrogels for intelligent drug delivery system. J Appl Polym Sci 105(6):3656–3661

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Fan YJ, Zhao YY, Hu XM, Wu MY, Xue D (2020) A novel fire prevention and control plastogel to inhibit spontaneous combustion of coal: Its characteristics and engineering applications. Fuel 263:116693

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Vinogradov AV, Kuprin DS, Abduragimov IM, Kuprin GN, Serebriyakov E, Vinogradov VV (2016) Silica foams for fire prevention and firefighting. ACS Appl Mater Inter 8(1):294–301

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Giudice CA, Alfieri PV, Canosa G (2013) Siloxanes synthesized “in situ” by sol-gel process for fire control in wood of Araucaria angustifolia. Fire Safety J 61:348–354

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Illeperuma WRK, Rothemund P, Suo ZG, Vlassak JJ (2016) Fire-resistant hydrogel-fabric laminates: A simple concept that may save lives. ACS Appl Mater Inter 8(3):2071–2077

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Zhang LL, Qin BT (2014) Study on the gelation of foamed gel for preventing the spontaneous combustion of coal. J Spectrosc 2014:163742

    Google Scholar 

  24. de Dicastillo CL, Bustos F, Guarda A, Galotto MJ (2016) Cross-linked methyl cellulose films with murta fruit extract for antioxidant and antimicrobial active food packaging. Food Hydrocolloid 60:335–344

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Cui XF, Zheng WJ, Zou W, Liu XY, Yang H, Yan J, Gao Y (2019) Water-retaining, tough and self-healing hydrogels and their uses as fire-resistant materials. Polym Chem 10(37):5151–5158

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Chung JY, Ko JH, Lee YJ, Choi HS, Kim YH (2018) Surfactant-free solubilization and systemic delivery of anti-cancer drug using low molecular weight methylcellulose. J Control Release 276:42–49

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Bai ZM, Song L, Hu Y, Gong XL, Yuen RKK (2014) Investigation on flame retardancy, combustion and pyrolysis behavior of flame retarded unsaturated polyester resin with a star-shaped phosphorus-containing compound. J Anal Appl Pyrol 105:317–326

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Tang S, Qian LJ, Qiu Y, Dong YP (2018) Synergistic flame-retardant effect and mechanisms of boron/phosphorus compounds on epoxy resins. Polym Advan Technol 29(1):641–648

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Patel MA, AbouGhaly MHH, Schryer-Praga JV, Chadwick K (2017) The effect of ionotropic gelation residence time on alginate cross-linking and properties. Carbohyd Polym 155:362–371

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Matta E, Tavera-Quiroz MJ, Bertola N (2019) Active edible films of methylcellulose with extracts of green apple (Granny Smith) skin. Int J Biol Macromol 124:1292–1298

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Zhang JH, Mi XQ, Chen SY, Xu ZJ, Zhang DH, Miao MH, Wang JS (2020) A bio-based hyperbranched flame retardant for epoxy resins. Chem Eng J 381:122719

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Zohuriaan MJ, Shokrolahi F (2004) Thermal studies on natural and modified gums. Polym Test 23(5):575–579

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Akakuru O, Isiuku B (2017) Chitosan hydrogels and their glutaraldehyde-crosslinked counterparts as potential drug release and tissue engineering systems-synthesis, characterization, swelling kinetics and mechanism. J Phys Chem Biophys 7(3):1–7

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2017YFC0805900), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. WK2320000047), and the USTC Research Funds of the Double First-Class Initiative (Grant No.: YD2320002004).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Hafezeh Nabipour and Hu Shi have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, University of Science and Technology of China, 96 Jinzhai Road, Hefei, Anhui, 230026, People’s Republic of China

    Hafezeh Nabipour, Hu Shi, Xin Wang, Lei Song & Yuan Hu

  2. Key Lab of Mine Disaster Prevention and Control, College of Mining and Safety Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, Shandong, 266590, People’s Republic of China

    Xiangming Hu

Authors
  1. Hafezeh Nabipour
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Hu Shi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Xin Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Xiangming Hu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Lei Song
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Yuan Hu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Xin Wang or Yuan Hu.

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 26047 kb)

Supplementary file2 (MP4 26784 kb)

Supplementary file3 (MP4 45597 kb)

Supplementary file4 (MP4 16209 kb)

Supplementary file5 (MP4 19800 kb)

Supplementary file6 (MP4 20021 kb)

Supplementary file7 (MP4 21900 kb)

Supplementary file8 (MP4 19916 kb)

Supplementary file9 (MP4 20645 kb)

Supplementary file10 (MP4 17294 kb)

Supplementary file11 (MP4 19732 kb)

Supplementary file12 (MP4 19442 kb)

Supplementary file13 (MP4 22589 kb)

Supplementary file14 (MP4 23012 kb)

Supplementary file15 (MP4 22287 kb)

Supplementary file16 (MP4 22326 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Nabipour, H., Shi, H., Wang, X. et al. Flame Retardant Cellulose-Based Hybrid Hydrogels for Firefighting and Fire Prevention. Fire Technol 58, 2077–2091 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-022-01237-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-022-01237-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation