ABSTRACT
Textiles manufactured from natural or synthetic fibers have been utilized in many fields, such as transportation, military, furniture upholstery, etc. Most of the pure textiles are easily ignited by an exterior fire, and flames propagate very fast, thus causing a huge fire and casualties. Flame retardant (FR) textiles have attracted increasing attention from industrial and academic fields. To date, numerous FR techniques have been developed for enhancing the fire safety of textiles, including conventional FR finishing approaches and new emerging techniques, e.g., layer-by-layer (LBL) assembly. The current chapter is aimed to review the recent advances in FR textiles, including nature and synthetic fibers. Design of inorganic, hybrid, or organic FR coatings for the fire protection of different textile substrates achieved by depositing (nano)coatings on fabric surfaces through LBL assembly, sol-gel, dual-cure processes, UV-curing, or plasma deposition are summarized. The authors discuss and compare the results published in the open literatures and present the advantages and disadvantages exhibited by different approaches. Finally, multiple FR mechanisms for textiles are discussed and clarified.
