9. Flame Retardant Finishing for Textiles

State of the art and perspectives on chemicals and techniques which have been developed in textile finishing for conferring flame retardant properties to natural and synthetic fibres are discussed in this review. An overview on the mechanism of combustion and fire retardancy is reported as well as the chemistry of flame retardants action, the different available types and their uses. The chemistry of molecules used to improve fire retardancy is discussed along with their thermal stabilities and flame-retardant properties. Simplified assumptions about the gas and condensed phase processes of flaming combustion provide relationships between the chemical structure of polymers and fire behaviour, which can be used to design fire-resistant textile materials. Moreover, an overview of currently accepted test methods on textile fabrics to quantify burning behaviour is reported. Finally, as a consequence of increasing commercial demands in terms of cost-effectiveness coupled with increasing concerns about the environmental and general toxicological character of flame retardant additives, some consideration is also given to both the novel approaches of the chemistry of antimony-free and halogen-free flame retardants and to attempts at increasing the efficiency of known chemistry to enhance char formation by intumescent action.