Colorful polyester with high-efficiency flame retardant and anti-dripping properties

Polyester (PET) fiber, also known as “the king of fibers”, is one of the fastest-developing, highest-yielding, and most widely-applied fibers among various synthetic fibers since 1960s and widely applications in clothing, carpets, and decorative fabrics due to its excellent properties such as high strength, stable dimensions, and chemical corrosion resistance. However, polyester fibers are fusible and flammable synthetic fibers. Meanwhile, PET fibers have poor hydrophilicity and are difficult to dye due to the compact molecular structure of PET and its semi-crystalline structural properties. The aforementioned shortcomings severely restrict their application in home furnishings, clothing, and industrial textiles. Herein, we firstly prepared the colorful PET fibers by depositing an ultra-thin and dense TiO 2 , Al 2 O 3 , and ZnO nano-film layer with the maximum thickness of ~1/100 of the fiber diameter via multi-pulse vapor phase infiltration (MPI) technology, respectively. As-prepared PET fibers successively produced beautiful yellow, blue, purple, green, and red bionic colors. The colors of the colored PET fibers can withstand tape tearing, washing, and ultraviolet (UV) irradiation and exhibiting an excellent color fastness. Most importantly, the colored PET fibers also exhibiting enhanced flame-retardant and anti-dripping properties. This work provides a new idea for the synergistic improvement of eco-coloring, flame retardant, and anti-dripping properties of PET fibers, which is expected to guide the functional fiber design for future innovations.