Cotton

Flame Retardant Finish on Polyester/cotton Blend Fabric

Today I will describe about the flame retardant finishes on Polyester of cotton blend fabric.

Polyester fiber is self extinguished by melt drip, but in case of Polyester/Cotton blend, cotton burns to skeleton of black carbonaceous char on which molten drips of polyester sticks and gives scaffolding effect, heat is transferred to cotton char and helps in burning. Hence it is very difficult to make fire retardant to polyester/cotton blended fabric.
As the cotton fiber is hydrophilic so, when a fire retarded agent is applied, it is absorbed by cotton, not by Polyester. There are some agents’ e.g tirs, mixed cyclic phosphonate etc, which can be used for making fire retardant polyester fibers. These works well but tris is carcegenic though it is cheaper. Mixed cyclic phosphonate is costly    , carcegenic and dermatitis hence limited use.
Caliban FR p-44 is a mixture of 45% decabromo diphenyl oxide plus antimony oxide plus latex binder could be used for fire retardant to polyester/cotton fabric. It is applied as coating. It works very well and in both phases i.e in condensed phase antimony oxide converts cotton into char and in vapor phase bromine acts the polyester / cotton blend fabric flame retardant. The disadvantages are that it changes the color of fabric and antimony is toxic.

An ideal flame retardant for cotton should posses the following properties:-

1. Fast to washing/dry cleaning/light should be OK.
2. Low add on means High effectiveness.
3. Neutral or Alkaline Ok.
4. Contains glow proofing elements. Ok.
5. Non-toxic in the fiber and treatment bath.
6. Compatible with other finishes. Ok.
7. Low cost.
8. Minimum effect on fabric handle, strength and abrasion resistance Ok.
9. Good flame retardant effect.
10. No effect on shade / fastness of dyes.
11. Minimum smoke /toxic gas emited.
12. Non dermatitic.