Abstract:

In order to meet the ecological requirement of flame retardant finishing for wool textiles, TiO2-SnO2 composite sol was used as flame retardant. The optimum formula of the sol was obtained by orthogonal experiment. The properties of the wool fiber before and after the finish, e.g. flame retardance properties, elemental composition, thermal degradation behavior and surface appearance were studied by limited oxygen index (LOI), infra-red spectrum (FT-IR), thermal gravimetric analysis (TG), and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results showed that the wool showed the best flame retardance performance at the molar ratio of (C2H5OH:(H2O):(SnO2):(TiO2):(HNO3):(CH3COOH) is 3:1:0.2:0.1:0.1:0.1. A nonflammable oxide film was formed on the surface of wool upon the finish of TiO2-SnO2 composite sol which prevent thermal transmission and oxygen diffusion and the flammability of the wool was changed accordingly. Organic silicon softener was added into the TiO2-SnO2 composite sol system to improve the fabric hand feeling and the laundering durability.

Key words: wool, flame retardant finishing, composite sol, limit oxygen index