Mechanical and functional evaluations of flaming-retardant/far-infrared composite nonwoven fabrics

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the mechanical properties, far-infrared (FIR) emissivity, and limiting oxygen index (LOI) of FIR ray/low-melting-point (LM) nonwoven fabrics, flame retardant (FR)/LM nonwoven fabrics, and FIR/FR/LM composite nonwoven fabrics, which are with or without heat treatment and also investigating the effect of heat treatment on the LM polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fibers. Test results show that for FIR/LM nonwoven fabrics, applying heat treatment leads to the better mechanical properties and FIR emissivity of 0.90. For FR/LM nonwoven fabrics, unheat-treatment samples have greater mechanical properties and an LOI of 34. For FIR/FR/LM composite nonwoven fabrics, the unheat-treated samples exhibit greater tensile properties, but the heat-treated samples exhibit greater puncture resistance, burst strength, and FIR emissivity. The structural parameters of the composite nonwoven fabrics can be adjusted according to the demand of users in terms of FIR emissivity and flame retardancy, and the composite nonwoven fabrics are thus expected to be used as construction materials for medical systems.