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A flame dies out when it meets self-extinguishing cotton

Genetic variants that confer fire resistance could replace the artificial flame retardants currently added to textiles.
Composite of ten time series images of a flame test on two fabrics, taken five seconds apart

A conventional cotton fabric (top row) was consumed by fire in 15 seconds, but the flames could not take hold in a fabric made from specially bred cotton (bottom row). Credit: G. N. Thyssen et al./PLoS ONE

New lines of white-cotton plant produce a fabric that doesn’t burn. When the fabric is set alight, the flames extinguish on their own — a trait previously observed only in textiles made from cotton plants that produce brown fibres1.

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Nature 613, 614 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00071-8

References

  1. Thyssen, G. N. et al. PLoS ONE 18, e0278696 (2023).

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