As clearly reported in the scientific literature, the history of cotton flame retardancy is very old: this is easily attributable to the chemical and physical properties of this fibre that made it predominant during the 20th century; at present, it is only exceeded in volume by polyester. As a consequence, the huge number of papers published in the scientific literature so far covers an extended period and, sometimes, it could be easy to forget some of the knowledge already developed in the past and to focus the attention on the recent highlights only. Therefore, the present work is aimed to review the most significant scientific and technological results about the flame retardancy of cotton, merging the past experience and the current efforts, trying also to foresee a possible scenario for the next future. After a historical excursus on the achievements up to 2010, the review will summarize the recent developments reached in the so-called “era of nanotechnology” for cotton, as a consequence of the setup of new approaches like nanoparticle adsorption, Layer by Layer assembly and sol–gel processes. Finally, a possible alternative development route indicated by the potential exploitation of bio-macromolecules as green flame retardant systems will be briefly discussed.

Cotton flame retardancy: state of the art and future perspectives

Heating rate effect on char yield from cotton, poly(ethylene terephthalate) and blend fabrics

Textile flammability research since 1980 – Personal challenges and partial solutions

Spontaneous combustion (SC) is defined as combustion of material in the absence of “forced ignition”, that is, an externally applied spark or flame. This paper describes how SC occurs in piles of yard trimmings, starting with chemical and physical events that initiate heat-producing reactions via biotic and abiotic processes involving oxygen and a little water. The accumulation of heat generated within a pile depends on the balance between rate of internal heat production and rate of heat loss to the external environment. When the former rate is higher than the latter, a “critical” internal temperature may be reached at which time run away ignition, i.e., SC, is unavoidable. Water plays the interesting role of “governor” of temperature change and heat exchange within a pile of yard trimmings as well as heat loss from a pile. While heat, in the form of water vapor, is being lost from a self-heating pile, the pile temperature does not rise above 70 −90°C until all free water has been removed. An analogy is ...

Self-Heating In Yard Trimmings: Conditions Leading To Spontaneous Combustion

A knowledge of the kinetics of decomposition of biopolymers on heating is important mainly in two domains: forest fires and the incineration of biomass for the production of electric energy. For the study by thermogravimetry of biopolymers (cellulose, holocellulose and lignin), samples of several Mediterranean plants were used. The cellulose decomposition fits well with apparent first-order kinetics. The activation energy in an air flow is about 185 kJ mol−1. It ranges between 149 and 200 kJ mol−1 for holocellulose (cellulose+hemicellulose) in an air flow. Under nitrogen, the values are higher. Differences in the chemical structures of the hemicelluloses (pentosan and hexosan) may explain these variations. The lignins also display various chemical structures. We observed large differences in the thermal decompositions of the various samples. The decomposition rate is increased in a nitrogen flow containing 6% oxygen. We observed a correlation between the maximum decomposition rate and the heating rate. This variation presents a particular form (linear with two slopes). Only the second part seems to be interesting.

M. Greenhalgh

Papers

Ignition studies on cotton cellulose by DTA