Fibers with good flame retardant (FR) and smoke suppression performances are highly desirable for the purpose of eliminating fire hazard. This study developed a novel FR fiber by wet-spinning poly (vinyl alcohol)/β-cyclodextrin (PVA/βCD) composite fiber and crosslinking it with hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI). βCDs showed good compatibility with PVA matrix, and the resulting PVA/CD/HDI fibers showed mechanical strength at the same level as natural cotton fiber. The PVA/CD/HDI fibers also showed excellent flame retardance (the LOI value of PVA/CD/HDI could reach 41.7%, and their peak of heat release (PHRR) could be reduced by up to 77.7% by neat PVA), and super-smoke suppression (the value of total smoke production (TSP) was only 28.6% compared to PVA). These dramatic reductions of fire hazard were ascribed to the char formation of βCD and crosslinking structure of PVA/CD/HDI, which formed a compact char layer during combustion, thus preventing heat transmission and smoke release.
Keywords: cyclodextrin; fiber; flame retardant; smoke suppression.