DURABLE FLAME-RETARDANT TREATMENTS FOR BLENDS OF COTTON, WOOL, AND POLYESTER

In the reported experiments, durable flame-retardant treatments based on a vinyl phosphonate oligomer or Thps were applied to cotton, cotton/polyester, cotton/wool, and cotton/polyester/wool medium-weight twill fabrics. The treatments were applied by either a pad, dry, cure process or a two-step procedure consisting of a pad, dry, cure application of DMDHEU followed tby a Thps-NH//3 cure process. Flammability of the treated fabrics was evaluated by a number of tests, including burning rate, vertical char length, oxygen index, and a flame-extinguishment test. Physical properties were determined by standard tests to measure breaking strength, wrinkle recovery, stiffness, durable-press rating and shrinkage due to laundering. Cotton/wool blend fabrics treated with Thps-urea-TMM had the best flame-retardant properties.