Durable flame retardant polyacrylonitrile fabric via UV-induced grafting polymerization and surface chemical modification

Abstract

To improve the flame retardancy of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fabric, glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) was firstly grafted onto the surface of PAN fabric. Then, the GMA grafted PAN fabric (PAN-g-GMA) was chemically modified with hydrazine hydrate and phosphorus acid in sequence to obtain ammoniated PAN-g-GMA fabric (Am-PAN-g-GMA) and flame retardant PAN fabric (FR-PAN), respectively. The structures, thermal properties and combustion characteristics of the samples were researched in detail. The results indicate that the fire retardant PAN fabric has good char-forming ability. Cone calorimeter tests show that the total heat release (THR) of FR-PAN declines by 38.4%, while the peak heat release rate (PHRR) of FR-PAN decreases by 60.2%. Moreover, the total smoke production (TSP) and the peak smoke production rate (PSPR) of FR-PAN dropped from 1.5 m² and 0.06 m² s⁻¹ for the control sample to 0.4 m² and 0.01 m² s⁻¹, respectively, indicating excellent smoke repression performance. The LOI value of FR-PAN fabric was 29.3% after 30 washing cycles showing good washing resistance and excellent flame retardant durability.