| The textile industry is constantly seeking new technologies to make its production more efficient, economical and environmentally friendly. An exciting new strategy to impart value-added functional finishes to textiles is the use of radiation, such as ultraviolet (UV) light, to drive the polymerization of monomers onto the surface of the substrates. These grafted polymeric layers provide the fiber or fabric with interesting new properties, such as antimicrobial behavior, water and oil repellency or flame retardancy. With the aid of a photoinitiator, UV curing can take place very rapidly and the process is waterless and uses less energy than traditional textile wet processing.;With these thoughts in mind, this research explores the molecular design, synthesis, UV induced graft polymerization and performance evaluation of nine phosphorus-based flame retardant monomers for cellulosic cotton substrates. All monomers in this work were easily prepared using one-pot reactions procedures. With the assistance of Irgacure 819 photoinitiator, seven of the nine monomers were shown to simultaneously graft and polymerize onto the surface of cotton fabrics under UV radiation. JMPRTM Pro 10 software was used to explore the effect of variables, such as monomer concentration, photoinitiator concentration and UV exposure time, on the yield of the grafted polymeric layer. Burn testing of the treated fabrics in the vertical, 45° and horizontal orientations showed that all nine monomers were effective flame retardants that function via the condensed phase mechanism by encouraging the formation of nonflammable char. These burn test results were validated by thermogravimetric analysis, which demonstrated quantitatively that all nine monomers strongly promote the generation of a protective char. Finally, scanning electron microscopy was used to examine the surface morphology of the treated fabrics and visualize the grafted polymeric layer. |
