ABSTRACT
Since the fire hazards of polyester-cotton blended (PTCO) fabrics and the hidden dangers of bacterial infection concerns caused by the contained cotton fiber, the design of flame retardant and antibacterial PTCO fabrics has received considerable attention. In this work, flame-retardant PTCO fabrics with satisfactory antibacterial properties were fabricated via a convenient and eco-friendly impregnation treatment involving guanidine phosphate (GP) and polyethylenimine (PEI). The prepared PTCO fabrics demonstrated excellent flame retardancy with a high limiting oxygen index value of 30.5 % and self-extinguishing capability, the damaged length was only 34 mm in the vertical flammability test. Furthermore, the peak heat release rate and the total heat release of coated PTCO fabrics were reduced significantly by 49 % and 38 %, respectively, indicating a substantial enhancement in fire safety. According to the analysis of the char residues and volatiles, GP presented great catalytic carbonization property, and PEI assisted the formation of the dense and stable carbon layer. The stable carbon layer effectively restricted mass and oxygen transfer between the PTCO fabrics and the environment. In addition, the introduction of PEI also produced more nonflammable gases to enhance the flame retardancy of the PTCO fabrics. Importantly, the GP/PEI coating barely deteriorate the physical and mechanical properties of the PTCO fabrics. The antibacterial rate of the GP/PEI-coated PTCO fabrics against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus was 99.99 %, similar to that of GP-coated fabrics, indicating the efficacy antibacterial properties of GP, and the addition of PEI did not compromise the antibacterial properties of GP. This work offers an efficient and simple approach to producing multifunctional PTCO fabrics with excellent flame retardancy and antibacterial properties, which are hopeful to expand the promising application of PTCO fabrics.
Subject(s)
Anti-Bacterial Agents , Cotton Fiber , Flame Retardants , Polyesters , Textiles , Polyesters/chemistry , Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology , Anti-Bacterial Agents/chemistry , Escherichia coli/drug effects , Staphylococcus aureus/drug effects , Microbial Sensitivity TestsABSTRACT
The compound 2-phosphonobutane-1,2,4-tricarboxylic acid (PBTCA) is an eco-friendly water treatment agent possessing flame-retardant phosphorus element and multi-carboxylic acid groups in its molecular structure. In the present work, PBTCA is employed as a finishing agent to improve the flame retardancy of the wool fabrics by the pad-dry-cure technique. The treated wool (10.2% weight gain) by 100 g/L of PBTCA showed an increased flame retardancy with a limiting oxygen index value (LOI) of 44% with a minimum char length of 40 mm. Importantly, the treated wool can self-extinguish after 30 washing cycles. The PBTCA-treated wool exhibited better stability with obviously increased char residue of 39.7% and 28.7% at 600 °C, while only 25.9% and 13.2% were measured for the control wool in nitrogen and air atmosphere, respectively. In addition, the high thermal stability of the treated wool with astonishing char-forming ability is confirmed by the SEM images of the wool after the isothermal heating treatment at different temperatures. Finally, a two-stage flame-retarding mechanism of enhanced crosslinking and char formability of PBTCA-treated wool is proposed and analyzed by infrared spectroscopy (TG-FTIR) and thermal (DSC and TGA) results of the pyrolytic volatiles of the treated wool.
