Fire suppressing performance of superfine potassium bicarbonate powder

Fire suppression effectiveness of a new kind of dry powder based on potassium bicarbonate was studied in this paper. The powder consisted of superfine potassium bicarbonate and some organic and inorganic additives, which was denoted as ‘K‐powder’. The physical and chemical characteristics of the K‐powder were characterized by a series of techniques of X‐ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transforms infrared (FTIR) and thermal gravity analysis, etc. Performance of the new potassium‐based powder in fire suppression was studied by laboratory‐scale experiments, which exhibited much superior fire suppression efficacy than that of the commercial bicarbonate powder. Such improvements could be reasonably ascribed to the special chemical composition, microstructure and radiation effect on the mechanisms. The preparation, fire suppression and possible fire‐extinguishing mechanisms were studied in detail. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.