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ARS Home » Southeast Area » New Orleans, Louisiana » Southern Regional Research Center » Cotton Chemistry and Utilization Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #299728
Title: Thermal decomposition reactions of cotton fabric treated with piperazine-phosphonates derivatives as a flame retardant

Author
item Nguyen, Monique
item Chang, Sechin
item Condon, Brian
item THOMAS, TINA - University Of Georgia
item AZADI, PARASTOO - University Of Georgia

Submitted to: Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/16/2014
Publication Date: 9/20/2014
Citation: Nguyen, M.M., Chang, S., Condon, B.D., Thomas, T., Azadi, P. 2014. Thermal decomposition reactions of cotton fabric treated with piperazine-phosphonates derivatives as a flame retardant. Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis. 110:122-129.

Interpretive Summary: In the past decade, there has been achieved improved textile functional performance and properties. Many textile properties can be altered by modifying surfaces of fibers including flame retardancy. There have been a large number of studies to understand the combustion of cotton and ways to make it more flame resistant in the past. In this paper, we reported surface modification of the cotton by novel flame retardant compounds. The flame retardant effect and thermal stability were investigated and discussed. Furthermore, the changes of chemical structure for control and cotton fabrics treated with flame retardants during the thermal degradation were monitored and the evolved products of cotton fabrics were analyzed by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA)/FTIR and prolysis–gas chromatogram/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS).

Technical Abstract: There has been a great scientific interest in exploring the great potential of the piperazine-phosphonates in flame retardant (FR) application on cotton fabric by investigating the thermal decomposition of cotton fabric treated with them. This research tries to understand the mode of action of the two piperazine-phosphonates derivatives on cotton fabric. The investigation proceeds by preparing Tetraethyl piperazine-1,4-diyldiphosphonate (TEPP) and Diethyl 4-methyl piperazin-1-ylphosphoramidate (DEPP), engrafting them on cotton fabric and studying their mechanism of thermal degradation on fabric. In studying the mechanism, we learned the chemical functional groups of the chemicals on the surface of the treated fabrics and of the evolved gases produced thermalgravimetrically and pyrolytically by using different analytical techniques such as attenuated total reflection infrared (ATR-IR), thermogravimetric analysis-fourier transform infrared (TGA-FTIR) spectroscopy and pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS). The experiment’s results showed some distinctive details in the thermal degradation of the fabric when applied with these additives.