Modification by intumescent flame retardants is an effective way to impart antiflame properties to fabric materials. Polyphosphazene elastomers contain all three elements required by intumescent flame retardants: an acid source, a gas source, and a carbon source, making them all-in-one integrated intumescent flame retardants. In this work, halogen-free poly(dimethoxy)phosphazene (PDMP) loaded with 29.0 wt % phosphorus and 13.1 wt % nitrogen is shown to be an ideal flame retardant for fabric materials. For the first time, transparent and elastic PDMP was applied as an intumescent flame retardant for cotton fabric. The PDMP-coated cotton shows remarkable high-efficiency flame-retardant properties: (1) a self-extinguishing property during the vertical flame test is obtained when the add-on level reaches 5.3 wt %, with a lower smoke release character; (2) the limiting oxygen index (LOI) values of coated cotton are improved with increasing add-on level, and the thickness of the coating is measured to be at the nanolevel, 2540 nm when 10.9 wt % PDMP is coated. The coated cotton shows enhanced carbonization ability at lower temperatures, which is the key to imparting flame-retardant properties to cotton, and the PDMP-coated cotton shows remarkably lower peak heat release rate and total heat release compared to the control cotton during combustion. The durability of modified cotton was tested after 50 laundering cycles, which showed that the coating maintains 80% of its initial mass, and the after-laundering sample preserves the characteristics of self-extinguishing and a high LOI. Thus, the PDMP nanocoating-modified flame-retardant cotton fabric is sufficiently durable for practical application.
Keywords: durable; flame retardant; high efficiency; nanocoating; poly(dimethoxy)phosphazene elastomer.