Flame retardant finishing of fabrics by diammonium hydrogen phosphate using plasma generated from a theta-pinch device

Abstract

This research emphasizes on the method for flame retardant finishing of polyester, cotton and polyester-cotton fabrics by diammonium hydrogen phosphate which is a water soluble flame retardant. A theta-pinch device was used to generate pulsed nitrogen plasma for inducing the reaction between diammonium hydrogen phosphate and these fabrics. The number of plasma shot applied to the fabrics and the concentration of diammonium hydrogen phosphate solution were varied as 1 2 5 and 10 shots and 5 10 15 and 20%, respectively. The fabric morphology investigated by scanning electron microscope (SEM) showed etching effect and the presence of diammonium hydrogen phosphate on the fabric surface. Dhemical structure characterized by Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier Transform Infrared (ATR/FT-IR) Spectroscopy and wettability of plasma-treated and untreated fabrics before and after washing revealed that different functional groups were formed on the fabric surface depending on the above finishing conditions and also the type of the fabric. As a consequence, the flammability of these three plasma-treated fabrics was different. These results indicated that the optimum condition for improving flame retardancy of polyester-cotton fabric was at 2 shots of pulsed nitrogen plasma and 5% of diammonium hydrogen phosphate solution. However, in the case of polyester fabric, the improvement was observed only for the ignition time but not the combustion time.