Flame resistant modification of silk fabric with vinyl phosphate

The flame resistant finishing of silk fabric is still a challenge because most of the available treatment methods usually result in insufficient laundering durability. In this paper, a vinyl phosphorus-based monomer diethyl-2-(methacryloyloxyethyl) phosphate (DEMEP) was applied onto silk fabrics by graft copolymerization technique using potassium persulfate as an initiator. FT-IR spectra and amino analysis showed the evidence of the reaction between DEMEP and silk. The silk fabrics treated with DEMEP have excellent self-extinguishing property when the DEMEP add-on is over 50 % wt of silk fabrics. The LOI of treated samples is at least 28 % when the weight gain is 10 %. After being subjected to 30 hand wash cycles, DEMEP treated silk fabric can still pass the vertical flammability test. Thermal gravimetric (TGA) and differential thermal analysis (DTA) were applied to explore the thermal decomposition of silk fabrics treated with DEMEP. The initial decomposition temperature of silk fabric treated with DEMEP was shifted to a lower temperature. And at the end of decomposition at 700 °C, the char residue of silk fabric treated with DEMEP was higher than that of the control sample.