Influence of water-soluble polymers/new fluorochemical surfactants interaction according to extinguishing efficiency of multipurpose foam compounds

Abstract

Addition of water-soluble polymers in multipurpose fire-fighting foam formulations allows an increase in the viscosity of lamellar solutions able to slow down water drainage and protect foams against the destructive action of hydrophilic or polar flammable liquids by forming a gelatinous pellicle. Usually, such foam concentrates must have a high polymer concentration, to be resistant against polar liquids fires; however, too high a viscosity of the foam concentrates generates suction problems. Thus, the structure of the polymer was modified by synthetic reactive fluorochemical agents with a view to greatly increasing the polar liquid repellency of multipurpose foam compounds while decreasing the polymer amount and consequently the concentrate viscosity.