Multifunctional Finishing of Cotton and Blended Fabrics Treated with Titanium Dioxide Nano-particles

The details of the study conducted on the synthesis and characterization of nanosized Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) particles and their application on cotton and polyester/cotton fabrics for imparting multifunctional properties (viz. Antibacterial protection, self-cleaning and UV protection) are reported in this paper. Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) is extensively used as a photocatalyst due to the strong oxidizing power of its holes, high photo-stability and redox selectivity.The nano-particles of TiO₂ were produced in different conditions of temperature (100° or 120°C) and the concentration of HNO₃ using soft chemistry. These nano-particles were characterized by Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and Xray powder diffractometry (XRD) for assessing the composition, their shape, size and crystallinity respectively. Then, these TiO₂ nano-particles were applied to 100%cotton and polyester/cotton samples to impart multifunctionality to the treated textiles. The effectiveness of the multifunctional finishing treatment was assessed through standardized tests available for testing the special functions such as anti-microbial protection, selfcleaning and UV protection both before and after washing of the treated samples. Consequently, it was demonstrated that the finished 100% cotton and polyester/cotton fabrics with nano TiO₂ had various functionalities, such as antimicrobial activity, self-cleaning and UV protection. The results of these tests have been collected, studied, analyzed and reported here.