REVIEW OF RECENT PHOSPHORUS-BASED FLAME RETARDANTS FOR TEXTILES

Abstract

Flame retardant textiles have been used extensively in the last few decades in apparels, military, automotive and aerospace industries. Brominated flame retardant (BFR) is a chemical additive that can help to prevent and / or slow down combustion by blocking branching reaction between free radicals from the flame and atmospheric oxygen. However, due to its toxicity towards the environment, scientists have found an eco-friendly alternative to replace BFR, which is phosphorus-based flame retardant. Traditionally, the retardant will exhibit its function in condensed phase at elevated temperature, but with the newly proposed phosphorus-based flame retardant, the combustion inhibition effect can be activated in both condensed and vapour / gas phase. This paper reviews various methodologies used by researchers to synthesise phosphorus-based flame retardants on different textile materials, such as cotton, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyamide 6 (PA6), nylon and wool. Characterisations such as limiting oxygen index (LOI) value, vertical flame test and tensile strength for each material will also be further discussed in this paper.
Keywords: Phosphorus-based flame retardant; textile materials; combustion cycle; flammability tests; toxicity.

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