Abstract
The search for possible alternatives to traditional flame retardants (FRs) is pushing the academic and industrial communities towards the design of new products that exhibit low environmental impact and toxicity, notwithstanding high performances, when put in contact with a flame or exposed to an irradiative heat flux. In this context, in the last five to ten years, the suitability and effectiveness of some biomacromolecules and bio-sourced products with a specific chemical structure and composition as effective flame retardants for natural or synthetic textiles has been thoroughly explored at the lab-scale level. In particular, different proteins (such as whey proteins, caseins, and hydrophobins), nucleic acids and extracts from natural sources, even wastes and crops, have been selected and exploited for designing flame retardant finishing treatments for several fibers and fabrics. It was found that these biomacromolecules and bio-sourced products, which usually bear key elements (i.e., nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulphur) can be easily applied to textiles using standard impregnation/exhaustion methods or even the layer-by-layer technique; moreover, these “green” products are mostly responsible for the formation of a stable protective char (i.e., a carbonaceous residue), as a result of the exposure of the textile substrate to a heat flux or a flame. This review is aimed at summarizing the development and the recent progress concerning the utilization of biomacromolecules/bio-sourced products as effective flame retardants for different textile materials. Furthermore, the existing drawbacks and limitations of the proposed finishing approaches as well as some possible further advances will be considered.
Highlights
When exposed to the action of a flame or a heat flux, most textile materials ignite and burn: this behavior severely limits their utilization in several application fields, where fire resistance is mandatory
This review is aimed at summarizing the development and the recent progress concerning the utilization of biomacromolecules/bio-sourced products as effective flame retardants for different textile materials
The lowest add-on (i.e., 5 wt.%) behaves similar to untreated cotton, with the only difference referring to the final residue (12.5% vs. 0%) and the formation of a compact and coherent char that maintains the texture of the pristine fabric
Summary
When exposed to the action of a flame or a heat flux, most textile materials ignite and burn: this behavior severely limits their utilization in several application fields, where fire resistance is mandatory. Some proteins, nucleic acids and natural extracts may represent a novel different challenging approach to the fire retardance of fibers and fabrics, considering that, to date, they have been utilized for different applications, very far from flame retardance Their uses as edible films, adhesives, food emulsifiers, papermaking, leather finishing systems, and for designing environmental monitoring units and biosensors wearability are well known [27,28,29,30,31]. Results untreated and caseins-treated fabrics fromof horizontal spread tests
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