Nonformaldehyde Flame Retardant Finishing of the 65/35 Nomex/Cotton Blend Fabric for Protective Clothing

摘要

Blending cotton with Nomex improves the affordability and serviceability of textile fabrics. Because cotton is a highly flammable fiber, the Nomex/cotton blend fabrics containing more than 20% cotton requires flame-retardant finishing treatment. In this research, we investigated the combination of a hydroxyl functional organophosphorus oligmer (HFPO) as the flame retardant and 1,2,3.4-butanetetracarboxylic acid (BTCA) as the bonding agent for flame retardant finishing of the 65/35 Nomex/cotton woven fabric. We studied the use of triethenolamine (TEA) as an reative additive to enhance the performance of HFPO/BTCA. BTCA reacts with HFPO, cotton and TEA to form BTCA/HFPO/TEA/cotton crosslinked polymeric networks on the blend fabric to improve the bonding and hydrolysis resistance of HFPO on fabric and also to enhance HFPO's flame retardant performance by the synergistic nitrogen of TEA. The Nomex/cotton blend treated with the HFPO/BTCA/TEA system shows high flame retardant performance and high laundering durability at relatively low HFPO concentrations. We also measured heat release properties of the treated Nomex/cotton blend fabric to understand the bonding meachanism of the HFPO/BTCA/TEA system on the Nomex/cotton blend fabric.