Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
Guided by a materials science professor at Stony Brook University, a team New York students has developed a patent-pending, environmentally-friendly flame retardant that they claim is five-times stronger than currently commercially available products.
Miriam Rafailovich, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Co-Director of the Program in Chemical and Molecular Engineering at Stony Brook, guided an undergrad at the university and a pair of high school students as they developed the sustainable method of rending wood used in construction flame retardant using natural materials.
The research, which took place at the Garcia Center for Polymers at Engineered Interfaces at Stony Brook as part of the Garcia Research Scholar Program, has already drawn interest from multiple firms looking to license the technique, Rafailovich said in a statement Monday.
The Garcia Research Scholar Program provides high school students and teachers the chance to work with the faculty and staff at the university’s polymer science and technology lab. Research on the flame retardant was initiated by Tehila Stone, a former member of the program.
Noah Davis, a senior at Earl L. Vandermuelen High School on Long Island involved in the research, explained that he has long been interested in math and science, and that his passion for these fields led him “to look for research programs over the summer. I learned about the Garcia Program, and the focus on polymer-based engineering immediately drew my interest.”
Rafailovich said that the students “were the primary drivers in this work,” and that she “guided them in addressing the pertinent questions,” while high school student and team member Daniel Kim said that program “was the optimal choice for access to a quality lab and great mentorship.”
The team began their work with a basic 2×4 from Lowe’s, and went on to engineer a compound that impregnated the natural structure of the wood. They said that this compound formed a wood-plastic composite that exceeds UL 94 V-O criteria for the safety of flammability, and is also capable of extinguishing a flame without decomposing into toxic byproducts.
“What interested me the most was that it could be used to safeguard homes and buildings. The idea that the world can really benefit from flame retardant wood was my greatest motivation for this project,” Kim explained. The research also involved Dr. Marcia Simon, a professor in the university’s department of oral biology and pathology and director of the Living Skin Bank.
“The students chose to use resorcinol bis(diphenyl phosphate) (RDP), which the EPA has declared a preferred substitute for halogenated flame retardants,” she said. “Preliminary data in our laboratory confirms that when RDP is reacted with cellulose, or clays… it is safe and non-cytoxic. Although the finished product is safe, in vitro tests suggest that the unreacted RDP liquid, used in industrial plants, can be cytotoxic and should be handled with care.”
Rafailovich said she was pleased that the young students were able to have the opportunity to conduct this type of research, adding that “a great deal of innovation is possible if we encourage students to explore their ideas.” She said that these students tended to be more “in-tune” with current developments in the field of consumer science, but that they likely lacked the tools and the know-how to fully explore their ideas.
—–
Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.
Comments