A comprehensive study of flame retardancy of phosphorous functionalized graphene by microwave assistance for cotton fabric

The increased number of fire accidents cause risk to human life, economy, and environment. There is an urgent need to design and develop efficient flame retardants to reduce the fire risks. Cotton clothes have been utilized in all human life to make them more convenient. But despite its wide utilization, its quick ignition makes it vulnerable to accidents. The present article is based on the preparation of covalently functionalized phosphorous grafting flame retardants for cotton fabric. The microwave irradiation facilitates the rapid synthesis of highly efficient flame retardant material from graphene oxide and polyphosphoric acid (PPA). In this method, in-situ basic reduced GO (BRGO) was synthesized and interacted with phosphorus functional groups, where negative counterparts of BRGO readily reacted with PPA leading to the formation of strong phosphorous and oxygen covalent bonds. The resultant P@BRGO is then coated on cotton fabric and checked for its flame retardancy by using spirit lamp test, vertical flammability test (VFT) and limiting oxygen index (LOI). The spirit lamp test reveals that the P@BRGO protected the cotton fiber from ignition for up to 754 s on continuous flame, while BRGO endowed cotton sustain for up to only 24 s. The mean LOI of P@BRGO/cotton is 43.14 % which is considerably higher than that of BRGO/cotton (23.04 %) and blank fabric (17.8 %). The present work reflects the easy preparation of RGO, which can be converted into value added, highly efficient FR material.