Natural Flame Retardant Finish for Textiles

Abstract

The field of flame retardancy has witnessed rigorous development in the area of new technologies, products and materials to meet the challenge and needs of ever changing safety regulations and cope with the changing requirements of everyday use. Most of the chemical flame retardants available are non bio-degradable and result in bio-accumulation, thus posing a serious threat to the environment and also to human life, especially to children. The carcinogenic nature of flame retardants has led to bans on the application of such chemicals on children wear about 30 years ago, but the risk of fire on clothing in the household still remains high. As such, this work proposes the use of attapulgite, a naturally occurring form of clay to impart flame retardancy to cotton and poly-cotton fabrics which are the most commonly used material in the field of home textiles. The finish is applied onto cotton and poly-cotton by the pad-dry–cure method. Evaluation of finished fabric is carried out for flame retardancy, tensile strength, abrasion resistance, stiffness, and durability according to ASTM standards, and the results have been recorded.