Recent surface engineering methods for improving the flame retardant features of textiles

Fabrics flammability represents a major limitation to their use and hence to the development of most textile-based advanced technologies. Recent environmental and safety concerns are leading to progressive phasing out of versatile and effective halogen-based fire retardants, which, so far, ensured an effective textile fire hazard control. Furthermore, their replacement with phosphorous or phosphorous-nitrogen systems has allowed achieving acceptable performances, regardless of the “strong” chemistry usually behind their synthesis and application. Among the intensive efforts that are being made to develop new, environmentally safe, textile fire protection approaches, the recognition of the paramount role played by the textile surface during combustion and the exploitation of the new nanotechnologies developed for surface engineering seem to offer a promising perspective for textile fire retardancy. This work is aimed at discussing the recent surface engineering methods, namely sol-gel technique and layer by layer assemblies (exploiting fully inorganic, hybrid and organic architectures), which are able to slow down the polymer combustion even to extinguishment, complying fire safety rules of specific applications, through the creation of a surface barrier to heat and mass transfer across the textile surface