Flame retardancy improvement of modified cotton fabric bay nanosilica sol coating

Abstract

Cotton fabric was coated by silica sol at different times using dip-coating method. Nanosilica coated fabrics were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Energy dispersive X-Ray spectroscopy (EDX), and Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). From SEM result, it showed that fabric surface was coated by nanosilica particles of 20-30 nm size. Nanosilica coated fabrics showed the improvement not only in flame retardancy (LOI increased from 18.4 to 30.8) but also in tear strength. Tear strength increased from 23 N/mm (cotton fabric) to 29.9 N/mm (fabric coated nanosilica at 3 times).