Performance enhancement of diammonium hydrogen phosphate as halogen and formaldehyde free sustainable fire retardant

Abstract

Phosphorous based fire retardants are commonly used for imparting fire retardancy to the cotton fabric. However, most of theeffective phosphorous based fire retardants for textile contain toxic halogen and/or formaldehyde. Diammonium hydrogen phosphate does not contain halogen or formaldehyde but its performance is far less than the commercially available fire retardants. Therefore, in this research Diammonium hydrogen phosphate was polymerized with zero formaldehyde based cross-linkers like acrylic acid and maleic acid. Concentrations of monomers and initiator, polymerization conditions and temperature were optimized. Newly developed recipe treated fabric exhibited good fire retardancy performance as well as additional properties of shrinkage control, easy care and anti-microbial. Analytical testing of SEM, FTIR and phosphorous content also confirmed the successful application of the finish.