Firefighting foam is a foam used for fire suppression. Its role is to cool the fire and to coat the fuel, preventing its contact with oxygen, thus achieving suppression of the combustion. Firefighting foam was invented by the Moldovan engineer and chemist Aleksandr Loran in 1902.[1]
The surfactants used must produce foam in concentrations of less than 1%. Other components of fire-retardant foams are organic solvents (e.g., trimethyl-trimethylene glycol and hexylene glycol), foam stabilizers (e.g., lauryl alcohol), and corrosion inhibitors.
- ^ Loran and the fire extinguisher Archived 27 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine at p-lab.org (in Russian)