Durable flame retardant treatment of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fabric with cross-linked layer-by-layer assembled coating.

In this study, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fabrics were firstly grafted with acrylamide (AM) to ease the fabrics' melt-dripping during the combustion. Then the PET fabrics were treated with layer-by-layer self-assembled coating composed of polyethyleneimine (PEI) and oxide sodium alginate (OSA) together with subsequent cross-linking of hypophosphorous acid (HA). As characterized by attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and scanning electron microscope, the prepared coating were successfully constructed on the surface of PET fiber. Thermogravimetric analysis indicated that the thermal decomposition of HA cross-linked coating treated PET fabric was clearly retarded as compared with the untreated sample, as reflected on the improvements of temperature of the maximum decomposition rate and char residue. The combination of AM grafting and 15 bilayers HA cross-linked OSA/PEI coating resulted PET-UV-15 fabric self-extinguished the fire without melt-dripping in the horizontal burning test. Meanwhile, PET-UV-15 fabric was durable to 12 laundering cycles. Compared with the untreated PET fabric, 44.0% and 29.4% reductions in the PHRR and THR were achieved for P-UV-15 fabric, respectively. • Durable flame retardant coating was fabricated on the surface of PET fabric. • Thermal stability of treated PET fabric was enhanced by the prepared coating. • The flammability of treated PET fabric was reduced obviously as compared with pure one. • The flame retardant coating was durable to 12 laundering cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]