Effect of Zinc Borate on Flammability of PET Woven Fabrics

Zinc borate (ZnB) has been used as a flame retardant, a smoke suppressant, and an antitracking agent in several applications. It may show synergistic effects with antimony oxide and metal hydroxides in fire retardant systems. In this work, the effect of ZnB on the flame retardancy of PET (poly(ethylene terephthalate)) woven fabrics was investigated. In order to provide the homogenous application of ZnB to the fabrics, the particle size of ZnB powders was reduced from 9 μm to submicron scale by wet-milling with zirconia balls followed by high shear fluid processing. ZnB dispersion was mixed with low-formaldehyde melamine resin based cross-linking agent and it was applied to PET fabrics by pad dry cure method. ZnB dispersion was then added in different ratios to alkyl phosphonate and organophosphorus compound based commercial flame retardant finishing agents and applied to the fabrics. The effect of zinc borate with phosphorus based flame retardant (FR) finishing agents was examined by cone calorimetry under a heat flux of 35 kW/m2, vertical flame test, and limit oxygen index. Thermogravimetric analysis was performed up to 800°C under N2 flow. Test results show that zinc borate can be combined with the organophosphorus based commercial FR finishing agents. Zinc borate could not improve the flammability properties of PET fabrics significantly but decreased mean CO, total smoke release, and total smoke production values.