By Ebele Orakpo

Our secondary school children are putting on their thinking caps, looking for ways to make life better for the people. At the recently held Nigerian Secondary Schools Science Fair organised by Genius Illumina at the University of Lagos, Cherry Field College, Jikwoyi, Abuja, presented their project entitled; Enhanced paint using locust bean pod extract.

In this chat with Vanguard Learning, the students, Favour Garuba, Nnamdi Nwajiuba and Godenaan John Wala said they were motivated to carry out the research as a result of the incessant building collapse in the country. Excerpts:

Said Nnamdi; “In the north, it is a common practice for locals to hang locust bean pods on their walls and with the coming of the rains, the water washes out the extract into the walls. At first, they look a bit unsightly but further research led to the discovery that this extract actually makes the walls stronger. What makes the wall stronger in the locust bean pod extract is partially the organic and the inorganic components.

*From left; Favour Garuba, Nnamdi Nwajiuba, Godenaan John Wala. Inset: Locust bean

The organic component – tannin – is a plant chemical spread over the clay lumps and even them out so that the pores are filled and water cannot penetrate. So if this is applied on your wall, it will do this exact thing and water will, therefore, not destroy your wall. The calcium, the inorganic component, combines with oxygen in the process of oxidation to form calcium oxide. The calcium oxide in turn combines with the clay in the wall  to form calcium silicate, the major cementing agent. So you have double cement, making your wall stronger.

I think the local folks knew the principle behind this practice because they could not afford paint or cement to hold their walls together. It is a regular tradition that we notice nowadays and we decided to investigate this particular one because of the rate of building collapse in the country due to poor engineering so we have found a way now to make buildings stronger.”

Significance:
Speaking on the significance, Favour Garuba said; “The significance of this is that you are able to get paint that enhances your wall by making it stronger. In addition, it also has an anti-termite property to prevent termites from destroying anything you use it on.”

Commercial viability:
“Now that we have seen that it actually works, we want to sell the idea to major paint producers so they will simply integrate the extract into their paints to make the walls stronger. It is at no extra cost because this is something that is being thrown away so it adds no extra cost to their production.”