Frontiers in protective clothing innovation: A temporal-spatial analysis of research hotspots and collaborations via CiteSpace (2015 to 2024)

As essential professional protective equipment, protective clothing plays a critical role across medical, industrial, chemical, environmental protection and other fields with its manufacturing and development attracting sustained attention. This study presents a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of protective clothing research spanning 2015 to 2024, utilizing 2918 publications from the Web of Science Core Collection. Employing CiteSpace for co-citation, co-occurrence, and burst detection analyses, we delineate key research trajectories, identify influential contributors, and pinpoint emerging frontiers. Findings indicate sustained growth within the field, with Donghua University and the United States as the leading institutional and national contributors, respectively. Research evolution is characterized by three distinct phases: foundational studies (2015–2016), material innovation (2017–2020), and pandemic-driven medical applications (2021–2024). Central research themes encompass thermal performance optimization for flame-retardant clothing, barrier mechanism advancements in chemical protective apparel, ergonomic design for occupational wear, and antiviral functionality in medical protective suits, reflecting a shift from single-function solutions toward integrated, intelligent protective systems. Central themes include thermal performance, ergonomic design, and multifunctional material systems. The COVID-19 pandemic significantly influenced recent research directions, particularly in enhancing comfort and viral protection for medical use, while progress in nanofiber technologies and sustainable materials benefits multiple protective clothing categories. Future research priorities should emphasize wearability across diverse hazardous environments, pandemic-responsive designs, and cross-application sustainable material systems. This analysis provides a systematic framework for understanding the field’s evolution and offers valuable insights to guide researchers, policymakers, and industry stakeholders in advancing protective clothing technology.