Simple and green synthesis of calcium alginate/AgCl nanocomposites with low-smoke flame-retardant and antimicrobial properties

Fire hazards and infectious diseases result in great threats to public safety and human health, thus developing multi-functional materials to deal with these issues is critical and yet has remained challenging to date. In this work, we report a facile and eco-friendly synthetic approach for the preparation of calcium alginate/silver chloride (CA/AgCl) nanocomposites with dual functions of excellent flame-retardant and antibacterial activity. Multi characterization techniques and antibacterial assays were performed to investigate the flame-retardant and antibacterial properties of the CA/AgCl nanocomposites. The obtained results show that the CA/AgCl nanocomposites exhibited much higher limiting oxygen index value (> 60%) than that of CA (48%) with a UL-94 rating of V-0. Moreover, CA/AgCl particularly displayed an efficiently smoke-suppressive feature by achieving a total smoke release value of 2.7 m(2)/m(2), which was reduced by 91%, compared to CA. The antibacterial rates of the CA/AgCl nanocomposites against E. coli and S. aureus were measured to be 99.67% and 99.77%, respectively, while CA showed quite weak antibacterial rates. In addition, the flame-retardant and antibacterial mechanisms were analyzed and proposed based on the experimental data. This study provides a novel nanocomposite material with both flame-retardant and antibacterial properties which show promising application prospects in the fields of decorative materials and textile industry.