Durable Thermoregulating, Antibacterial, and UV Protective Smart Cotton Embedded with Polyethylene Glycol and BaTiO₃

Abstract

The phase change material (PCM) polyethylene glycol (PEG) and ferroelectric material barium titanate (BaTiO3) nanoparticles were added to a stock paste to form a pigment–binder formulation. The resultant mixture was then directly screen printed onto cotton fabric. The coated cotton was characterized by attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and UV spectrophotometry. The thermoregulating capabilities of both pristine and coated cotton samples were investigated with the use of a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). For the 100th heating and cooling cycles, the melting and crystallizing enthalpies of modified cotton were found to be 23 J/g and 21 J/g, respectively. Against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, the modified fabric showed a bacterial reduction of more than 99%. After 20 washing cycles, the bacteria growth was effectively suppressed by more than 91%. The coated fabric showed a UV absorption peak around 300–330 nm, capable of blocking harmful UV rays. The modification of cotton did not change its intrinsic properties such as breathability and its mechanical properties. The finished product has tremendous opportunities and offers an excellent replacement for conventional garments for applications in medical textiles and daily wear garments.

Cotton functionalized with polyethylene glycol and graphene oxide for dual thermoregulating and UV-protection applications

“…7 . Kumar et al (2022) reported that PEG-6000 shows melting and cooling enthalpy of about 282 J/g and 142 J/g with the endothermic and recrystallization peak around 59 °C and 40°C 17 , 52 . In the present work, GO-PEG-g-Cotton phase change temperature (Tm) was found to be around 58 °C while the crystallization peak appeared at 40 °C for the first DSC heating and cooling cycle.…”

“…Polyethylene glycol (PEG) is one of the available PCMs that is often employed as a heat storage medium for the preparation of S-SPCMs. PEG has unique advantages such as high latent heat of fusion, simple reagent reactivity, cyclic stability, non-toxicity, and availability in a range of molecular weights with varying melting and cooling enthalpies 13 – 17 .…”

Review of Ionic Semiclathrate Hydrates as Thermal Energy Storage Materials: Properties and Applications

“…Today, thermal energy storage has become a crucial technology for solving the global energy crisis in the oil, gas, and electricity markets. The development of thermal energy storage engineering has contributed to the reduction of energy consumption and the stabilization of power supplies across various industries, including commercial air conditioning, ,− data center cooling, , battery cooling, , photovoltaics, , and thermoregulation. …”

“…The development of thermal energy storage engineering has contributed to the reduction of energy consumption and the stabilization of power supplies across various industries, including commercial air conditioning, 2,3−4 data center cooling, 5,6 battery cooling, 7,8 photovoltaics, 9,10 and thermoregulation. 11 Phase change materials (PCMs) are widely used as thermal energy storage media and release/absorb latent heat via phase transition. Latent heat storage systems that use PCMs have advantages in terms of higher energy storage capacities and smaller temperature fluctuations with phase changes compared to other storage systems such as sensible heat storage and thermochemical heat storage.…”