Flame retardant cotton fabrics with ultra-fast and long-term fire early warning response.

ABSTRACT

Smart textiles with flame retardant and fire-warning functions have received more and more attention. However, improving the fire-warning response sensitivity and long-term responsiveness of the smart textiles is a top priority. In this research, flame retardant and fire-warning cotton fabrics were prepared by layer-by-layer assembly composite coating consisting of bio-based flame retardants composed of chitosan (CS) and phytic acid (PA) and carbon-based nanomaterials composed of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene oxide (GO). The PA-GO/CS-CNTs coated cotton fabric showed excellent flame retardancy with a limiting oxygen index (LOI) value of 31 %, and the coated fabrics could self-extinguish rapidly when the flame was removed. The fire hazard of the coated fabric was significantly reduced by reducing the 45.77 % of peak heat release rate, 29.69 % of total heat release and 81.9 % of total smoke production. The PA-GO/CS-CNTs coated cotton fabric showed ultra-fast fire warning response with the response time of 1.0 s. And the fire-warning response time of the coated cotton fabric could last longer than 600 s revealing it possessed the continuous fire warning response property. This research provides a new strategy to prepare the smart fireproof textiles with flame retardant and fire-warning functions to broaden its application in early fire-warning.