Improve the flame retardancy of cellulose fibers by grafting zinc ion.

Abstract Zinc ion as the only flame retardant of cellulose fibers was successfully grafted onto cellulose fibers. Grafting maleic anhydride onto cellulose fibers via homogeneous acylation reaction between N,N-dimethyl formamide (DMF) as the first step. Then, graft zinc ion onto the formed cellulose fibers was conducted with zinc carbonate. The resulting copolymers were characterized by FTIR. Flame retardancy and thermal degradation of zinc-ion-modified cellulose fibers (cellulose–Zn fibers) was investigated by limiting oxygen index (LOI), cone calorimeter (CONE), XRD, TG and SEM. Zinc ion could effectively improve flame retardancy and thermal degradation when its content increases up to 4.96 wt%.