With the aim of minimizing the damage caused by fire by realizing the flame retardant processing of clothing and shade cloth or protective cloth of outdoor structures including smelters´ clothing, our research group conducted a study to synthesize a flame retardant with high fire resistant performance and to develop a highly durable flame retardant cloth by firmly combining it with cotton fabrics.
The synthetic reaction is divided into three steps of reactions: the first step reaction for synthesizing tetramethylol ethylenediamine from ethylenediamine and formalin, the second step reaction for synthesizing ethylenediaminetetramethylenephosphonic aicd(EDTMPA) from tetramethylol ethylenediamine and phosphonic acid, and the third step reaction for synthesizing ammonium ethylenediaminetetramethylene phosphonate (AEDTMP) from EDTMPA and aqeous ammonia.
The cotton fabric was then immersed in 5% AEDTMP solution, dried, and then sprayed with 5% trimethylolmelamine binder solution, cured and dried at 110-120 °C.
There was no significant difference in the flame retardancy of cotton fabric specimens five time treated with 5% flame retardant solution and 5% binder solution and cotton fabric specimens once treated with 25% flame retardant solution and 25% binder solution, but compared with the damage length after 20 washes, the specimens treated 5 times were 2.9 cm smaller than those once treated and after all, the washing resistance of them was much superior.
This suggested the possibility of finding a flame retardant treatment method for the manufacture of durable flame retardant cotton fabrics that can maintain flame retardant performance for a long time with the same flame retardant and binder.
The results above were published in the Journal 《Coating Technology and Research》 under the title of 《Preparation of ammonium ethylenediaminetetramethylenephosphonate and characterization of the durable flame-retardant cotton》(https://doi.org/10.1007/s11998-025-01088-6).
