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Effectively improving flame retardancy levels of finished cotton fabrics only by simple binary silicon-boron oxide sols

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Abstract

This work aims to improve the thermal stability and flame retardancy of cotton fabrics treated just by a single SiO2, a single B2O3 and their binary composite sol–gel systems. Tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) and tributyl borate were used as precursors. The sols were coated onto cotton fabrics via dipping-baking processes. Techniques including Diffuse Reflectance Infrared Fourier Transform Spectroscopy (DRIFTS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), limiting oxygen index (LOI) and vertical burning test (VBT) were used to investigate the surface functional groups, elemental compositions, crystal structures, surface morphologies, elemental contents, thermal stability and flame retardancy levels of original and sols-treated cotton fabrics, respectively. The results show that the sols converted gel coatings are successfully deposited on the cotton fabric surfaces. SiO2-B2O3 sol finishing cotton fabric shows the best flame retardancy. It shows the highest char residue rate (43.82%), the highest LOI (25.7%) and ΔLOI/Δm (7.0%/g), the lowest after-flame time (10.0 s) and after-glow time (0.0 s without a smoldering process), a relatively complete and continuous char residue after a VBT. The SiO2 and B2O3 sol–gel systems play more synergistic effects than competitive effects in flame retarding a cotton fabric. A SiO2 gel shows effects of a high melting point, a structural support and dimensional stability, while a B2O3 gel shows a fusing capability and a longer pyrolysis process.

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Acknowledgements

The study is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51376089 and 50906039) and the 2019 Key Project of The Natural Science Foundation of the Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions of China (19KJA520007, A Class).

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 51376089, Fei YOU, No. 50906039, Fei YOU.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Safety Science and Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, 211816, China

    Chang Zhou, Songtao Zhou, Fei You, Zhenhua Wang, Dan Li, Gang Li & Xuefeng Zhang

  2. Institute of Fire Science and Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, 211816, China

    Chang Zhou, Fei You, Zhenhua Wang, Gang Li & Xuefeng Zhang

  3. Xuzhou Branch of China Construction Bank Co., Ltd, Xuzhou, 221000, China

    Songtao Zhou

  4. Zhengdong Road Street Office (Jingkou District), Zhenjiang, 212008, China

    Dan Li

  5. Jiangsu Suolong Fire Science and Technology Co., Ltd, Xinghua, 225753, China

    Yu Pan, Junqi Wang & Jing Ma

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  1. Chang Zhou
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  3. Fei You
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Contributions

Chang Zhou: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Writing-original draft. Fei You: Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition. Songtao Zhou: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing-review & editing. Zhenhua Wang: Investigation, Software, Data curation. Dan Li: Investigation, Software, Data curation. Gang Li: Resources, Visualization. Xuefeng Zhang: Resources, Visualization. Yu Pan: Investigation, Validation. Junqi Wang: Investigation, Validation. Jing Ma: Investigation, Validation.

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Correspondence to Fei You.

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Zhou, C., Zhou, S., You, F. et al. Effectively improving flame retardancy levels of finished cotton fabrics only by simple binary silicon-boron oxide sols. J Polym Res 30, 437 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10965-023-03812-5

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