Study on flame-retardant and UV-protection properties of cotton fabric functionalized with ppy–ZnO–CNT nanocomposite

Abstract

Cotton fabric was modified with 1,2,3,4-butanetetracarboxylic acid as cross-linking agent in the presence of sodium hypophosphite as catalyst. Polypyrrole–zinc oxide (ppy–ZnO) and polypyrrole–zinc oxide–carbon nanotube (ppy–ZnO–CNT) composites were also prepared by an in situ chemical polymerization method. The composite sol was coated on the cotton fabric using a pad-dry-cure technique. This coated cotton fabric was characterized by FE-SEM with EDAX, XRD, UV-DRS and FT-IR analyses. Flame-retardant and UV-protection properties of the coated cotton fabric were tested and compared with those of uncoated fabric. The ppy–ZnO–CNT composite-coated cotton was found to possess better properties than uncoated cotton.