Preparation and Mechanism of Flame-Retardant Cotton Fabric with Phosphoramidate Siloxane Polymer through Multistep Coating

• Published in: Polymers Vol. 12; no. 7; p. 1538
• Main Authors: Xu, Denghui, Wang, Shijie, Wang, Yimin, Liu, Yun, Dong, Chaohong, Jiang, Zhiming, Zhu, Ping
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 12.07.2020; MDPI
• Subjects: Additives; Cellulose; Coating; Cotton; Cotton fabrics; Drinking water; Fabrics; flame retardancy; Flame retardants; Flammability; Fourier transforms; Heat measurement; Infrared analysis; Infrared reflection; Infrared spectroscopy; Investigations; multistep coating; Nitrogen; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Permeability; Phosphorus; Photoelectrons; Polymers; protective char; siloxane polymer; Siloxanes; Sol-gel processes; Solvents; Tensile strength; Textile composites; Textiles; Thermodynamic properties; Thermogravimetric analysis; X ray photoelectron spectroscopy; United States > US; China
• ISSN: 2073-4360; 2073-4360
• DOI: 10.3390/polym12071538

To improve the water solubility of phosphoramidate siloxane and decrease the amount of flame-retardant additives used in the functional coating for cotton fabrics, a water-soluble phosphoramidate siloxane polymer (PDTSP) was synthesized by sol-gel technology and flame-retardant cotton fabrics were prepared with a multistep coating process. A vertical flammability test, limited oxygen index (LOI), thermogravimetric analysis, and cone calorimetry were performed to investigate the thermal behavior and flame retardancy of PDTSP-coated fabrics. The coated cotton fabrics and their char residues after combustion were studied by attenuated total reflection infrared spectroscopy (FTIR-ATR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). All results presented that PDTSP-coated cotton fabrics had good flame retardancy and char-forming properties. PDTSP coating was demonstrated to posess gas-phase flame-retardant mechanism as well as a condensed phase flame-retardant mechanism, which can be confirmed by thermogravimetric analysis-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (TG-IR) and cone calorimetry test. Also, the preparation process had little effect on the tensile strength of cotton fabrics, although the air permeability and whiteness had a slight decrease. After different washing cycles, the coated samples still maintained good char-forming properties.