Flame Retardation of Cellulosic Fibers Characterized by Apparent Activation Energy of Thermal Degradation

Abstract

This paper extends previous investigations on the thermal degradation behavior of cotton fabric treated with compounds containing different kinds of elements that con tribute to flame retardation. The apparent activation energy (Ea) is evaluated by Ozawa's method at different stages of thermal degradation, represented by the thermal degradation onset point, maximum degradation rate point, and flash point, to observe the variation of Ea in the process of thermal degradation. Ea values of flame retardant samples are generally lower, whereas those of flammable samples are higher than that of untreated cotton fabric at every step throughout thermal degradation. Such results suggest that flame retardant materials decompose more easily than flammable samples, which supports the fact reported in earlier work that the thermal degradation of flame retardant materials is initiated at lower temperatures in comparison with that of flam mable materials.