Cotton flame retardancy: state of the art and future perspectives

Abstract

As clearly reported in the scientific literature, the history of cotton flame retardancy is very old: this is easily attributable to the chemical and physical properties of this fibre that made it predominant during the 20th century; at present, it is only exceeded in volume by polyester. As a consequence, the huge number of papers published in the scientific literature so far covers an extended period and, sometimes, it could be easy to forget some of the knowledge already developed in the past and to focus the attention on the recent highlights only. Therefore, the present work is aimed to review the most significant scientific and technological results about the flame retardancy of cotton, merging the past experience and the current efforts, trying also to foresee a possible scenario for the next future. After a historical excursus on the achievements up to 2010, the review will summarize the recent developments reached in the so-called "era of nanotechnology" for cotton, as a consequence of the setup of new approaches like nanoparticle adsorption, Layer by Layer assembly and sol-gel processes. Finally, a possible alternative development route indicated by the potential exploitation of bio-macromolecules as green flame retardant systems will be briefly discussed.

Flame retardation of cellulose-rich fabrics via a simplified layer-by-layer assembly

“…Layer-by-layer (LbL) method has been fully developed as a convenient and versatile way to fabricate refined microstructures and multifunctional thin films to substrates (Alongi & Malucelli, 2015;Carosio, Alongi, & Malucelli, 2011;Kim, Davis, Cain, & Grunlan, 2011;Li, Wang et al, 2010;Li, Schulz et al, 2010). Recently, LbL has been used to assembly eco-friendly flame retardants on fabrics (Alongi, Carletto et al, 2013;Alongi, Carosio, Frache, & Malucelli, 2013;Carosio, Di Blasio, Alongi, & Malucelli, 2013;Yang, Cao, Wang, & Schiraldi, 2015).…”

How much the fabric grammage may affect cotton combustion?

“…One of the most important issues to overcome for using it in numerous applications is its high flammability (Horrocks 1983). Many studies have been carried out by academia and industries in this century, as recently reviewed (Alongi and Malucelli 2015;Lowden and Hull 2013), in particular for replacing the main market targets represented by Proban Ò and Pyrovatex Ò (Horrocks 2011; Alongi et al 2013b). Among the most innovative solutions, the use of green flame retardants from bio-sources has been also explored (Basak et al 2014(Basak et al , 2015aMalucelli et al 2014), opening a ''new era'' for seeking environmentally friendly flame retardants.…”

Sol-Gel Applications in Textile Finishing Processes

“…By sol-gel method, high chemical concentration (nearly 300-500 g/l) used in conventional methods can be significantly decreased or by the use of chemical materials without halogen, ecological, and economical flame-retardant activity can be obtained. Alongi and Malucelli [8] reported the detailed review of flame retardancy treatment of cotton fabrics by sol-gel process until 2015.…”