Booth Id:
CHEM056
Category:
Chemistry
Year:
2022
Finalist Names:
Vilardi, Julian (School: Wetumpka High School)
Abstract:
Purpose: To see if gumballs from sweet gum trees can be used as an additive in paint to
reduce flammability.
Hypothesis: If I create a mixture of the paint, with a 20% powdered gumballs additive,
then the flammability will be lowered more than if there was a 10% powdered gumball
ratio or no gumballs at all. This will paint/gumball mixture will create a natural flame
retardant that can add texture to the wood.
Procedure: Collect materials. Cut gumballs. Remove the acorn cupule. Put the
gumballs into a blender and blend for 2 minutes, or until they are fine dust. Repeat with
the acorns. Label cups. Place the gumball and acorn dust in their proper cups. Label
paint sticks. Take a measuring cup for each paint stick and create the mixtures for
them. Paint the bottom 2 inches of each stick with their proper mixtures. Separate the
sticks into groups based on the material painted on them. Allow drying. One at a
time, take paint stick and place it in the fire. Start stopwatch. Once the part of the
paint stick with the mixture is completely burnt up, stop timer. Record time. Repeat
using larger commercial wood samples. Repeat using filtered gumball dust measure time to start, stop, and temperature.
Results: The 20% powdered gumball ratio for every mixture caused the flammability to
lower, making the sticks take longer to burn.
Conclusion: My hypothesis was correct, the 20% powdered gumball mixtures
lowered the flammability and created a natural flame retardant.