Wool: Its Effect On Flame Retardant Properties of Blend Fabrics

Abstract

Durable phosphorus-based flame retardants were applied to twill fabrics con taining cotton and wool to study the effect of wool on the flame retardancy and physical properties of the blend fabrics. The presence of wool in untreated blend fabrics caused burning rates to decrease and oxygen index values to increase as wool content increased in the blends. These effects were also observed in cotton/ wool blends treated with low levels of the Thps-urea-TMM flame retardant, but were less pronounced in fabrics treated at high levels. Thermogravimetric analyses were conducted to study the thermal degradation of the treated and untreated fabrics. The presence of wool in treated blend fabrics did not sig nificantly change strength retention, area shrinkage and wrinkle recovery values in comparison to similarly treated 100% cotton fabrics.