A flame retardant fabric nanocoating based on nanocarbon black particles@polymer composite and its fire-alarm application

• Published in: Chemical engineering journal (Lausanne, Switzerland : 1996) Vol. 433; p. 133501
• Main Authors: Xia, Long, Lv, Yan, Miao, Zhongxi, Luo, Lili, Luo, Weiang, Xu, Yiting, Yuan, Conghui, Zeng, Birong, Dai, Lizong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.04.2022
• Subjects: Carbon black; Carbonization; Fabric; Fire-warning sensors; Flame retardant; Carbonization; Flame retardant; Fire-warning sensors; Carbon black; Fabric
• ISSN: 1385-8947; 1873-3212
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2021.133501

•Carbon black nanoparticles with core-shell structure (CB@KF) were prepared.•CB@KF can endow cotton fabric with great flame retardancy and fire-warning property.•Modified cotton fabric has great mechanical property and flexibility.•The mechanism of flame retardant and fire-warning were illustrated. Facile fabrication of fire-warning sensors with low-cost and high-strength has always been a considerable challenge for materials scientists. Herein, Carbon black (CB) nanoparticles with core-shell structure (denoted as CB@KF) were prepared by in-situ polymerization. And a novel fire-warning sensor (denoted as CB@KF-CF) with temperature sensing, fire-warning, flexibility and high strength was fabricated by coating a flame retardant coating, which consists of PVA, CB@KF, and Carbon nanotubes (CNT) on cotton fabric. Benefiting from the flame retardancy and carbonization performance of CB@KF, CB@KF-CF possessed much better flame retardancy and fire-warning properties. Especially, CB@KF-CF exhibited a shorter alarm time to abnormal high temperature (350 °C) and fire, which can warn at 8 s and 4 s respectively. Meanwhile, the char length of CB@KF-CF was 7.8 cm after the Vertical flame test (VFT) and the Total heat release rate (THR) of CB@KF-CF was also reduced by more than 50%. Ultimately, the formation mechanism of the dense char layer and the conductive paths were also illustrated. These results show that the preparation of fire-warning sensor described in this paper has broad application prospects.