Borate functionalized caramel as effective intumescent flame retardant for wool fabric

Abstract In this study, the borate functionalized caramel (BF-Car) product was prepared by using glucose and synthesized ethanolamine borate ester through Caramel and Schiff base reaction. Then, BF-Car product was applied as effective intumescent flame retardant (FR) system to minimize the fire hazard of protein wool fabric via the facile exhaustion technique. The adsorption performance, smoke and heat suppression capacity, thermal stability, FR efficiency and mechanism of the treated wool fabrics were investigated. The BF-Car treatment endowed brown color and good FR ability to wool fabric, and significantly inhibited the smoke and heat emission of wool. The treated wool fabrics with a weight gain of 9.2% had the self-extinguishing ability, and still reached self-extinction after 5 home washings. The thermal stability analysis and char residue analyses suggested a condensed FR mechanism for the treated wool fabric. The BF-Car treatment finely affected the softness and tensile strength of the fabric. The present prepared BF-Car material shows great possibility to act as sustainable chemicals for enhancing the fire safety of wool fabric.