Working to develop new types of non-flammable fabrics, researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture have been interbreeding different varieties of cotton.

In the lab, the researchers discovered 11 strains of cotton that demonstrated flame-retardant characteristics by burning samples in their native form. From there, the team identified five strains that performed the best during testing — four of which extinguished fire entirely when flames were applied to it.

Time series of 45° incline flame test of non-woven fabrics from the MAGIC recombinant inbred lines (RILs) with the inferior heat release capacities (HRC) and the most superior HRC. Each image is 5 seconds apart. Top series is fabric made from RIL-225, which like all untreated textiles produced from conventional cultivated white cottons, was fully consumed by flame in approximately 15 seconds. Bottom series is RIL-385, which self-extinguished. Source: PLOS ONE (2023). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0278696

Currently, to prevent the flammability of cotton fabrics, chemical agents are applied to fabrics, which tend to be harmful to the environment and that become ineffective after repeated washing. As such, the U.S. Department of Agriculture team was prompted to develop flame retardant cotton varieties.

The efforts to develop such cotton varieties are detailed in the article, Flame resistant cotton lines generated by synergistic epistasis in a MAGIC population, which appears in the journal PLOS One.

Watch the accompanying video, which appears courtesy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, for more information on the development of flame retardant cottons.