What chemicals are used in a fire extinguisher?
How do they work to put
out fires?
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This answer is provided by William L. Grosshandler, leader of the
Fire Sensing and Extinguishment Group in the Building and Fire
Research Laboratory at the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST).
Fire extinguishers contain different chemicals, depending
on the application. Handheld extinguishers, which are
commonly sold at hardware stores for use in the kitchen or
garage, are pressurized with nitrogen or carbon
dioxide (CO2) to propel a stream of fire-squelching agent to
the fire. The active material may be a powder such as
potassium bicarbonate (KHCO3), liquid water, an
evaporating fluorocarbon or the propelling agent itself. The
most effective and common fluorocarbon used until recently
for this application had been
bromochlorodifluoromethane (CF2ClBr), referred to as halon
1211. By international agreement, however, production of
all types of halons ceased in 1994 because the bromine and
HANDHELDextin
chlorine atoms in the chemical were found to migrate over
guishers protect
time to the stratosphere, where they react to deplete ozone
against small fires.
in a very efficient catalytic cycle.
Many fire extinguishing systems are built into the building or other
structure being protected. Water sprinklers are by far the most common
type of fixed system because they are inexpensive, highly reliable and safe
for people. But water damage cannot always be tolerated (say, in a
computer room); it is sometimes ineffective (a fuel storage system); and it is
impractical where weight and space are limited (in an airplane). In these
situations, fire extinguishers use different materials--ones that flood a
protected compartment with a fire-fighting gas. CO2 works well, but is fatal
at the concentrations necessary to extinguish a fire, and so cannot be used
where people will be present. Bromotrifluoromethane (CF3Br, or halon
1301) is a close cousin to halon 1211, but has a much lower boiling point
and toxic level--properties that have made halon 1301 the firefighting
chemical of choice for applications where sprinklers cannot be used.
The phaseout of halons has led to a scramble by government and industry
researchers to find environmentally suitable replacements. None have been
identified with all the positive qualities of halon 1211 and halon 1301. The
trick is that the bromine and chlorine atoms in the halon molecule--the very
ones that are so damaging to the stratospheric ozone--are also incredibly
aggressive scavengers of hydrogen atoms, which are key to maintaining a
combustion chain reaction. Indeed, bromine and chlorine atoms are
released as halons decompose in the heat of the fire, establishing a catalytic
cycle involving HBr and HCl; the cycle converts active hydrogen atoms to
stable H2 molecules, breaking the chain reaction.
Manufacturers have introduced new families of chemicals containing no
chlorine or bromine, called hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs),that have physical
properties similar to the halons and no ozone depletion potential. But
lacking Br or Cl atoms, the HFCs cannot disrupt the combustion reaction to
the same degree. HFCs extinguish fires in a manner similar to CO2 or N2--by
absorbing heat and reducing the concentration of oxygen. Even so, several
different companies are marketing such HFCs as CHF3, C2HF5,and C3HF7 for
a variety of applications.
The need to find halon replacements remains. Researchers are actively
pursuing diverse materials--including iron- and phosphorous-containing
compounds and hydrofluorocarbons--with the ability to inhibit flames. They
are also developing better means of discharging more conventional
chemicals, such as H2O, N2 and CO2. For example, one idea is to use a solid
propellant to generate an inert gas mixture--an approach identical to the
systems in car air bags. Such a system, when activated, would extinguish a
fire just as one blows out a candle.
