What question did this study set out to answer?

The aim is to develop an eco-friendly flame retardant from lignin to enhance the fire safety of military uniforms.

April 4, 20260 citationsOpen Access

Phosphorylation and Characterization of Lignin and Its Application on Military Uniform as a Flame Retardant

JNJ. M. NwaedozieNigerian Defence Academy ZTZ.E. TersurNigerian Defence Academy FMF.K. MusaNigerian Defence Academy

Key Points

The aim is to develop an eco-friendly flame retardant from lignin to enhance the fire safety of military uniforms.
Extraction and modification of lignin from coconut husks using phosphoric acid.
Fabric strips treated with virgin lignin and phosphoric acid modified lignin.
Characterization of lignin structures using FTIR and SEM.
Thermo-gravimetric analysis to assess thermal stability.
Flammability testing through UL-90 horizontal burning test.
Phosphoric acid modification successfully incorporated phosphate groups into lignin.
Treated fabrics showed significantly slower weight loss and higher char residue compared to untreated samples.
Virgin lignin resulted in 57% weight loss with 42% char, while PM-Lig had 65% weight loss with 50% char.
Flame resistance was enhanced in treated fabrics, with reduced burning rates compared to untreated fabrics.

Abstract

The use of coconut fiber an agricultural waste was considered as an environmentally friendly and affordable alternative in the formulation of an environmentally friendly bio-based phosphorus containing flame retardant to be used on military uniforms in Nigerian defence system to mitigate the impact of fire hazards for soldiers during high-risk situations. This was achieved by extraction and modification of lignin from coconut husks using phosphoric acids. Strips of fabrics were treated with 30% aqueous solutions of virgin lignin (V-Lig) and phosphoric acid modified lignin (PM-Lig). The structures of the virgin lignin extracted(V-Lig) and the phosphoric acid modified lignin (PM-Lig) were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The characterizations showed that phosphate groups were covalently bonded to the lignin structure indicating the success of the lignin modifications. Strips of fabrics were treated with 30 % aqueous solutions of the virgin lignin (V-Lig) and the phosphoric acid modified lignin (PM-Lig). The thermo-gravimetric analysis in nitrogen atmosphere performed at 950 oC with heating rate of 10 oC/min. For the flame retardant treated fabrics showed slow rate of weight loss with high char residue and high ultimate degradation temperatures (57 % weight loss with 42% char for V-Lig and 65 % weight loss with 50 % char for PM-Lig) against the untreated fabric sample which degraded completely with no char residue (100 % weight loss with 0 % char) indicating high thermal stability for the treated fabrics. Flammability characteristics of the treated fabric samples investigated by UL-90 horizontal burning test showed very high flame resistance (109.0 mms-1 burning rate with 94.071 % weight loss for V-Lig and 45 mms-1 burning rate with 66.4 % weight loss for the PM-Lig) when compared to the untreated fabric sample (127.2 mms-1 burning rate and 94.662 % weight loss) confirming the PM-Lig to be a good flame retardant for fabrics with an ease of application.

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