A COMPARATIVE THERMAL ANALYSIS OF FIRE-OFF TREATED COTTON, POLYESTER AND CO/PET FABRICS

The present paper analyzes the potential for commercially available flame-retardant chemical called Fire-off for enhancing the flame-retardant properties of polyester (PET) and cotton (Co) fabrics and their corresponding blends (Co/PET). Fire-off was applied to the fabric through impregnation method and the resulting properties of these fabrics were assessed in terms of combustion behavior by use of a micro cone calorimeter (MCC) and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA). TGA results revealed that Fire-off could greatly enhance char residues of cotton, polyester and Co/PET fabrics at high temperature region. MCC results showed that Fire-off treatment could significantly decrease the heat release capacity (HRC), heat release rate (HRR), total heat release rate (THR) and peak heat release rate (pHRR) of cotton, polyester and Co/PET fabrics. According to comparison results, a near-perfect agreement between MCC and TGA data were found in terms of degradation temperatures and mass loss rates of fabric samples.