Fully bio-based fire-safety viscose/alginate blended nonwoven fabrics: thermal degradation behavior, flammability, and smoke suppression

Abstract

Ecofriendly bio-based alginate fibres are one of the inherently flame-retardant fibres. Can the incorporation of alginate fibres to viscose fibres enhance the flame retardancy and decrease the smoke release of prepared viscose/alginate blended nonwoven fabrics? Aiming to resolve this question, in the present work, viscose/alginate blended nonwoven fabrics were prepared in a green way without any pollution. Vertical flame test, cone calorimetry test and microscale combustion calorimetry results indicated that the incorporation of alginate fibres enhanced the flame retardancy and fire behaviors; what is more, the incorporation of alginate fibres seriously prolonged time to ignition. The results mentioned above indicate that alginate fibres can enhance the flame retardancy and inhibit the smoke release of viscose fibres. The incorporation of alginate fibres altered the thermal stability of viscose fibres and decreased the flammable gas emissions, thus improving the flame retardancy of viscose/alginate blended nonwoven fabrics. A conclusion can be made that inherently bio-based alginate fibres can be used as a kind of flame retardant to flame-retard viscose fibres. The incorporation of alginate fibres improves the flame retardancy and suppresses the release of smoke for viscose/alginate blended nonwoven fabrics.