Study on flame-retardant and UV-protection properties of cotton fabric functionalized with ppy-ZnO-CNT nanocomposite

Cotton fabric was modified with 1,2,3,4-butanetetracarboxylic acid as cross-linking agent in the presence of sodium hypophosphite as catalyst. Polypyrrole-zinc oxide (ppy-ZnO) and polypyrrole-zinc oxide-carbon nanotube (ppy-ZnO-CNT) composites were also prepared by an in situ chemical polymerization method. The composite sol was coated on the cotton fabric using a pad-dry-cure technique. This coated cotton fabric was characterized by FE-SEM with EDAX, XRD, UV-DRS and FT-IR analyses. Flame-retardant and UV-protection properties of the coated cotton fabric were tested and compared with those of uncoated fabric. The ppy-ZnO-CNT composite-coated cotton was found to possess better properties than uncoated cotton.