Antibacterial Activities and UV Protection of the in Situ Synthesized Titanium Oxide Nanoparticles on Cotton Fabrics

Abstract

In situ synthesis of titanium oxide nanoparticles (TiO 2 NPs) on cotton fabrics was innovatively studied. The synthesis involved the use of titanium isopropoxide (TIP) as a source of titanium hydroxide and urea nitrate as a peptizing agent responsible for conversion of titanium hydroxide to TiO 2 NPs. Characterization of TiO 2 NPs was performed using SEM-EDX, XRD, FTIR, TEM, particle size analyzer, and zeta potential. The results obtained signify the following features. TiO 2 NPs are deposited in the form of coating on the surface of cotton fibers. They are composed of aggregated nanoparticles with an average size dimension that does not exceed 50 nm. On the other hand, TiO 2 NPs-loaded cotton fabrics exhibit a bacterial reduction of more than 95%, which is sustainable even after 20 washing cycles; the bacterial reduction increases by increasing the urea nitrate concentration used in the synthesis of TiO 2 NPs. Cotton fabrics coated with TiO 2 NPs display excellent UV protection before and after washing.

Sol-Gel Applications in Textile Finishing Processes

“…El-Naggar et al stated that the cotton fabrics treated with titania nanosols in situ synthesized and then urea nitrate solution by two-step process possessed excellent antibacterial properties with, respectively, 99.4 and 99.37% bacterial reduction against to S. aureus and E. coli and excellent UV-protection properties with 42.11% UPF value with good durability to washing [115].…”

Enhancement of Antibacterial Capability of Cotton Textiles Coated with TiO2–SiO2/Chitosan Using Hydrophobization

“…Textiles with enhanced resistance against microorganisms (e.g., antibacterial and antimicrobial textiles) have been widely investigated in recent years since they are utilized for various applications such as in medical devices, health care, hygiene, water purification systems, hospitals, and dental surgery equipment . Therefore, several methods to improve the antibacterial capability of textiles have been proposed and are still being devised …”

“…8 Therefore, several methods to improve the antibacterial capability of textiles have been proposed and are still being devised. [8][9][10][11][12][13] Preparation of antibacterial textiles can be achieved by designing them with a simple technique using metal nanoparticles with sizes ranging from 1 to 100 nm. [14][15][16][17][18][19][20] Various approaches have been proposed to modify textiles with nanomaterials, such as sol-gel technique, magnetron sputter-coating, plasma deposition, and layer-by-layer formation.…”

Facile Sol-gel Synthesis of Metaloxide Nanoparticles in a Cellulose Paper Template

“…Meanwhile, a possibility to use them for fabrication of free standing ensembles of nanoparticles left upon burning off the cellulose template has been occasionally observed in a limited number of experiments: bundles of spongy nanofilaments of TiO 2 and ZrO 2 on a filter paper [9] and silk [10], TiO 2 nanoparticles [11] and ZnO/SiO 2 nanocomposites [12] on a cotton fabric. Moreover, a behaviour of impurities inevitably present in the cellulose made templates was not analyzed.…”