Ultrasound assisted surface micro-dissolution to embed nano TiO2 on cotton fabrics in ZnCl2 aqueous solution

Ruimin Hu; Zhenyun Zhao; Jing Zhou; Tao Fan; Yiping Liu; Tianfu Zhao; Ming Lu

doi:10.1016/j.ultsonch.2019.04.006

Ultrasound assisted surface micro-dissolution to embed nano TiO₂ on cotton fabrics in ZnCl₂ aqueous solution

Ultrason Sonochem. 2019 Sep:56:160-166. doi: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2019.04.006. Epub 2019 Apr 2.

Authors

Ruimin Hu¹, Zhenyun Zhao¹, Jing Zhou¹, Tao Fan¹, Yiping Liu², Tianfu Zhao¹, Ming Lu³

Affiliations

¹ College of Textile & Garment, Southwest University, 400716 Chongqing, PR China.
² College of Textile & Garment, Southwest University, 400716 Chongqing, PR China; Chongqing Engineering Research Center of Biomaterial Fiber and Modern Textile, 400716 Chongqing, PR China.
³ College of Textile & Garment, Southwest University, 400716 Chongqing, PR China; Chongqing Engineering Research Center of Biomaterial Fiber and Modern Textile, 400716 Chongqing, PR China. Electronic address: lumingswu@163.com.

PMID: 31101251
DOI: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2019.04.006

Abstract

In this paper, a simple and environment friendly approach was used to prepare the multifunctional composite fabrics via coating commercial TiO₂ nanoparticles (NPs) on the surface of cotton fibers by surface micro-dissolution process in 55%wt ZnCl₂ aqueous solution under the aid of ultrasound without any adhesive. The TiO₂/cotton composite fabrics were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and thermal gravity (TG) methods. The treated fabric had photocatalytic property in Rhodamine B (RhB) degradation, and had good antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) cultures. The results of contamination degradation and antibacterial experiments confirmed that ultrasonic vibration had a significant effect on the tightly coating of nanoparticles on cotton fiber surface in the process of micro-dissolution. Even after intense ultrasonic washing, the contamination degradation rate and antibacterial efficiency of S3 (with ultrasonic) still reach 95% and 99% respectively, while S4 (without ultrasonic) only remained 72% and 59% of S2, which was attributed that ultrasonic facilitated the entry and load of nanoparticles onto the fabrics. The mechanical property of treated cotton fabrics kept well.

Keywords: Cotton fabrics; Nano TiO(2); Surface micro-dissolution; Ultrasound assisted; ZnCl(2).