Ecofriendly and durable flame-retardant cotton fabric based on alkyl/N/B/P modified meglumine with high efficiency

Flame retardants for textiles have increasing tendency towards high efficiency and environmental protection. Herein, a series of efficient and ecofriendly alkyl/N/B/P modified meglumine (CmNBPM) were prepared by boric/phosphoric acid esterification of meglumine and then hydrophobic modification by N-alkylamine. Durable flame-retardant cotton fabric was fabricated by using CmNBPM as flame retardant. The results showed that carbon chains of alkylamine in CmNBPM structure should be controlled in range from C3 to C8. CmNBPM attained the best flame resistance at molar ratio of meglumine to boric acid 1: 4 and at molar ratio of phosphoric acid to n-propylamine 1: 0.8. In comparison with the untreated cotton fabric, LOI value of C3NBPM flame-retardant cotton fabric reached the maximum 38.4 % and improved by 1.18 times. pHRR, THR, and FGR of C3NBPM flame-retardant fabric were minimized among different N-alkylamine modification, which decreased by 84.5 %, 47.1 %, and 93.5 %, respectively. C3NBPM achieved high flame resistance at low dosage for the treatment of cotton fabric. Compared with NBPM fabric treated at the same concentration, LOI values of C3NBPM fabric treated in C3NBPM solution from 25 g/L to 200 g/L increased by 4.4– 17.7 %. Furthermore, C3NBPM fabric maintained good flame resistance after 30 laundry cycles.