Abstract:

Objective Phenolic resin fiber has attracted extensive attention owing to its unique flame retardant properties. However, the difficulty in spinning limits the garment applications of phenolic resin fibers due to low fiber strength. In order to solve this problem, this paper proposes a novel method of blending phenolic resin fiber and flame-retardant acrylic fiber and exploring their feasibility in garment.

Methods During spinning process, the ratio of phenolic resin fiber and flame retardant acrylic fiber were set to 20∶80, 40∶60, 60∶40 and 80∶20, respectively. Then, the blended yarns were weaved into fabrics with plain weave structure, and their structure, flame retardant, mechanical properties, wear resistance, thermal and wet comfort properties of the fabric were characterized according to national standards.

Results With the increased of the phenolic resin fiber from 20% to 80%, the fabric exhibited yellow, from light to deep, because the natural color of the phenolic resin fiber is golden yellow, while that of acrylic fiber is white. Notably, the thickness and surface density were gradually increased, as the content of phenolic resin fiber in fabric increased. According to GB/T 5455—2014 "Textiles-Burning behaviour-Determination of damaged length, afterglow time and afterflame time of vertically oriented specimens", the damaged length of blended fabrics should be less than 10 cm, and no afterglow and melt dripping phenomenon should occur. Although, with the increase of phenolic resin fiber, the afterflame time and damaged length of the fabric gradually decreased, but it still meet the standard requirements of flame retardant fabrics.

With the increase of phenolic resin fiber content in the samples, the breaking strength and the work of fracture of the four fabrics were gradually decreased due to the low breaking strength of the phenolic resin fiber, but the breaking elongation remained unchanged. The thermal and wet comfort properties of the fabrics were also studied and the results were summarized. As the content of phenolic resin fiber increased from 20% to 40%, the thermal insulation effect of the fabrics gradually enhanced. However, there was no significant change in thermal insulation as the content of phenolic resin fiber further increased to 60% and 80%. With the increase of phenolic resin fiber proportion, the moisture absorption rate gradually enhanced, and the permeability of the samples demonstrated a decrease and then an increase. The fabrics with the content of the phenolic resin fiber at 40% and 60%, had the same moisture conductivity. The pilling grades of four fabrics were 1.5, 3, 3.5 and 4, suggesting increased wear resistance of the fabrics with the increasing content of phenolic resin fiber.

Conclusion Phenolic resin fiber based yarns via blending with flame retardant acrylic fiber were prepared, and 4 types of yarns with different content of phenolic resin fiber were woven with plain weave structure. Their mechanical properties, flame retardant and thermal and wet comfort properties were carefully investigated. The results suggested that all types of blending spinning yarn based fabrics meet the acquirement of flame retardant, mechanical and air permeability. Besides, the fabrics with the content of phenolic resin fiber at 40% and 60% could reach the needs of flame retardant textiles and have good wear performance. Our blending spinning strategy will provide reference for the development of phenolic resin based wearable products.

Key words: phenolic resin, flame-retardant acrylic, blended fabric, wearability, flame-retardant textile