Chemical functionalization of flame retardant materials on Nylon-Cotton blend for durable FR clothing applications

摘要

In recent years,Army has significantly increased in its efforts to develop durable,environmentally benign and cost effective flame retardant (FR) clothing as the current FR protective materials (e.g.FR ACU) lack the one or more from the above mentioned criteria.Therefore,our current research efforts are focused on developing durable and cost effective FR fabrics based on nylon/cotton blend (Nyco,1:1 nylon:cotton),with comparable FR protection to the FR ACU.Although there are numerous traditional coating methods available to coat existing fabrics with FR materials,1’3 most of these traditional coating methods are based on weak,non-covalent interactions that are not durable to washing.Therefore,in the current work,we demonstrate enhanced durability through the surface chemical functionalization of Nyco fabric via covalent bonds.Initially surface functionalization was carried out using a versatile linker,1,1-carbonyldiimidazole,4 and then introduced a variety of functional groups onto surface of the fabrics by using simple nucleophilic substitution reactions.These functionalized fabrics demonstrated a better durability,and thermal and flammability properties compared to control fabrics.