Superamphiphobic and flame-resistant cotton fabrics for protective clothing

Superamphiphobic and flame-retardant finishing of cotton fabric can significantly improve its protective properties to expand its applications, such as protective clothing. However, creating such materials is still a challenging issue. Herein, we present a facile strategy to fabricate superamphiphobic and flame-retardant cotton fabric (SFC) via step-by-step dip-coating and spraying technology. Ammonium polyphosphate (APP) endows cotton fabric excellent flame retardancy. The robust coating formed by the polymerization product of ethyl 2-cyanoacrylate and 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorooctyl trichlorosilane (FOCS) can not only protect APP from being damaged but also trap air to form "air plastron", which makes SFC have excellent antifouling, chemical repellence and self-cleaning. The resulting SFC exhibited superamphiphobicity and flame retardancy with water contact angle of 161°, oil contact angle of 158° and LOI of 30%. After UV irradiation, mechanical damage, 180 °C oven heating and ultrasonic washing, it still maintains excellent hydrophobicity without loss of flame retardancy. This study expands the potential applications of cotton and provides feasible technologies for improving the overall efficiency of cotton.