The Effect of Titanium Dioxide and Boric Acid Treatments on the Fire Retardancy of Cotton Cloth
The purpose of this experiment was to determine the effect of titanium dioxide and boric acid treatments on the fire retardancy of cotton cloth. Many industrial workers work around unsafe electricity where a fire could start, so they need fire retardant clothing to protect them from fires. There are many chemicals that may affect fire retardancy, but only two treatments were tested. Cotton cloth was treated with one molarity boric acid or one molarity titanium dioxide treatment, exposed to a flame for five seconds, placed on wire gauze, and allowed to burn. The percent of the cloth that was charred, the duration the cloth burned, and the net mass loss were all measured as dependent variables. The char percent and net mass lost variables were deemed statistically significant between the boric treatment and the titanium treatment because the data did not overlap at all. The variable of time had the least difference between the treatments but was tested and found to be statistically significant. Two of the variables were visibly found to be significant due to the lack of overlap in the box plots. The other treatment was found to be significant by a two-sample t test. Since all three variables had significant difference favoring the boric treatment, there was an overall significance between the two treatments. This research is beneficial to worker safety in many different occupations: firefighters, linemen and industrial workers to name a few. This research could help increase worker safety for these extremely dangerous jobs.
Research Conducted By:
Cassandra Dolsen
Lakeview High School
Lucas Stinson
Southlake High School
Warren Consolidated Schools