FLAME RETARDANT FINISHING OF COTTON FABRICS WITH OLIGOMERIC VINYL PHOSPHONATE AND ACRYLAMIDE AT LOW TEMPERATURE

Abstract

Copolymerization of oligomeric vinyl phosphonate (OVP), Fyrol 76, and acrylamide (AM) was attempted on the cotton fabrics using cerium (IV) ammonium nitrate (CAN) as an initiator. The modified cotton fabrics were insoluble in cupric-ethylenediamine aqueous solution.This fact indicated that the graft-polymerization took place with the cotton fabrics. On the other hand, the fabrics treated with the pad-dry-cure method using OVP and AM as monomers and persulfate as an initiator were soluble in cupric-ethylenediamine aqueous solution; which indicated that the copolymer precipitated on the cotton fabrics.In this study the flame-retardancy and other properties of the cotton fabrics treated with above four different methods were investigated.An oxygen index (OI) of the cotton fabrics treated with OVP and N-methylolacrylamide (NMA) using CAN as an initiator was higher than those for the other methods, in the cases where the fabrics had the same phosphorus and nitrogen contents. On the cotton fabrics treated with the CAN-initiated copolymerization of OVP and NMA, the synergism of phosphorus with nitrogen worked more effective for flame-retardancy than on the fabrics treated with the other methods.