Self -extinguishable cellulosic textile from Spinacia oleracea

Abstract

Flame retardancy has been imparted to cellulosic cotton textiles using spinach (Spinacia Oleracea) juice (SJ). The extracted juice has been made alkaline and then applied a fresh to a bleached and premordanted cotton fabric. The flame retardant properties of both the control and the treated fabrics are analysed for limiting oxygen index (LOI) and vertical flammability. The study shows that the SJ treated fabrics have good flame retardant properties, with LOI of 30 for the SJ treated fabric, showing an increase by about 1.6 times compared to the control fabric with LOI of 18. As a result, the treated fabric does not catch flame and in the vertical flammability test, it burns with an afterglow and a propagation rate of 43.5 mm/min, which is almost 5 times lower than that observed with the control fabric. The mechanism of imparting the flame retardancy to the cotton fabric by application of SJ has been postulated and supported by SEM, EDX and char mechanism studies. The durability of the treatment to soap washing, rubbing, dry-cleaning and sunlight has also been studied. Besides, its application produces a natural green colour on the fabric, and no deterioration in other physical properties is observed.