Tannic acid is also taken by mouth and applied directly for bleeding, chronic diarrhea, dysentery, bloody urine, painful joints, persistent coughs, and cancer. Vaginally, tannic acid is used as a douche for white or yellowish discharge (leukorrhea). In foods and beverages, tannic acid is used as a flavoring agent.
The poor burning resistance of cotton necessitates the control of its pyrolytic reactions, but many approaches have relied on the use of synthetically engineered chemicals. Herein, we show how a natural polyphenol from plants—tannic acid—acts with sodium ions to create a robust thermal barrier coat on cotton, with a focus on thermal kinetics. The kinetic information, combined with thermal and spectral analyses, revealed that the outer layer of galloyl units in tannic acid decomposes via a two-step reaction, producing a multicellular char of crosslinked aromatic rings, followed by the blowing of carbonaceous cells into a further expanded structure.
