Developing flame retardant hybrid textile coating materials which are durable to washing and environmental with sol-gel method

In the scope of this study, it is aimed to transfer the environmentally friendly flame retardants to cotton fabrics by sol-gel method and, as a result, to obtain flame retardant fabric characteristics durable to washing. To conduct the aimed study, using phosphorus-nitrogen based flame retardants (ammonium phosphate, diammonium phosphate, guanidine phosphate), nitrogen containing compound (urea), silicon containing sol-gel precursors (tetraethoxysilane or (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane) and crosslinking agent ((3-glycidyloxypropyl)trimethoxysilane), nanosol solutions were prepared and using vinyl acetate or methyl methacrylate together with nanosol solutions, hybrid solutions were prepared. The prepared nanosol and hybrid solutions were transferred to cotton fabrics by dip-coating method. Surface morphological characteristics of the resulting coatings were recovered by applying Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy - attenuated total reflection (FTIR-ATR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscope (SEM) analyses, their flame retardant characteristics were evaluated by differential thermal analysis - thermogravimetric analysis (DTA-TGA), limit oxygen index (LOI), flame spread, vertical burning tests, as well their durability to washing and dry cleaning were assessed. As a result of those analyses and tests given above, transferring the phosphorus-nitrogen-silicon nanosol solutions, that were prepared by the sol-gel method, to the fabric, very high flame retardant attributes such as 60% LOI were achieved. This value is currently not available for commercial products. In this thesis study, negligible amount of chemicals and water were used through the application of the sol-gel method to give the flame retardant characteristics to the cotton fabrics which can not be compared with the conventional methods. By transferring the prepared nanosol solutions to the fabric, both high flame retardant features and eco-friendly prescriptions were developed.