A novel technique for producing durable multifunctional textiles using nanocomposite coating

摘要

The treatment of textiles with Ag/TiO_2 nanoparticles causes a brownish color that limits the application of this otherwise good composite. In this paper, a novel method is introduced to overcome this problem. To this end, the effect of various concentrations of cross-linkable polysiloxane (XPs) and Ag mixed with XPs on TiO_2 treated fabrics has been investigated. The results reveal the performance of the method in the application of Ag and TiO_2 nanoparticles separately. In addition to the major effect of XPs on durability, the synergistic effect of applying XPs, especially Ag mixed with XPs, on TiO_2 has been confirmed. Unexpectedly, increasing the concentration of XPs not only did not limit the TiO_2 activity but allowed light absorption by the TiO_2 particles due to the low refractive index of XPs. Therefore, XPs treatment can be helpful for increasing the bioactivity and the general photo-catalytic activity of TiO_2. The results also showed that the hydrophilicity-hydrophobicity of treated substrate can be adjusted over a broad range by controlling the concentrations of these two nanoparticles and the XPs ratio. Other characteristics of treated fabrics such as antibacterial, self-cleaning, stain photo-degradability, UV protection, air permeability and washing durability were also investigated.