Today, consumers are well aware of the functional protection properties of textiles, in addition to their aesthetic appearance. The use of nanoparticles for specialty finishing is an emerging area in textile processing and engineering. With the advancement in technology, it is possible to fabricate nanoparticles of the desired size and shape with various functional properties. Reports are available on the use of nanoparticles for antimicrobial, UV protection, flame retardant, and hydrophilic and hydrophobic finishes on textiles. Pathogens are a potential threat to humans and also gaining resistance to conventional antimicrobial agents. Thus, it is needed to find new and sustainable antimicrobial formulations. Metal nanoparticles have the potential ability to penetrate and destroy the cell membrane structure and eventually cause cell death. The nano-finished textiles could find various medical and hygienic applications. This review discusses recent research attempts to impart antimicrobial finishes to textiles using metal nanoparticles, focusing on the action of microbes on textiles, the synthesis and application of nanoparticles, their antimicrobial properties, the mechanism of action, toxicity studies, and important applications.

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Textile dyeing industries are one of the major culprits for environmental pollution. The industries are adopting various processes for the removal of dyes and chemicals from the effluent before disposing to the land or water bodies. In the reported study, biochars were prepared from almond, coconut, and mustard oil cakes by chemical activation with phosphoric acid followed by low temperature pyrolysis. The ball milling technique was employed to reduce the particle size of the biochars below 300 nm. The synthesized biochars were used for the removal of color from the acid dye effluent from the wool dyeing unit. The results showed that very small quantities (2.0 %) of biochars are sufficient to remove around 92% color from the dye effluent. The batch adsorption and kinetic studies indicate the highest efficiency of color removal for the biochar derived from almond oil cake, followed by mustard and coconut. The adsorption properties of the synthesized biochars were found to be greatly depending on the type of oil cake used. It is concluded that the biochars produced from the oil cakes may be a partial replacement of petroleum based activated carbon for the color removal from wool textile dye effluent.

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