The synthesis and application of chitosan coated ZnO nanorods for multifunctional cotton fabrics

Abstract It is of great interest in the interaction of fabrics with various biopolymers to improve their properties. Chitosan (CHT) is a promising biopolymer due to its abundance and challenging functions for many industries including textiles. CHT can be modified by metal and metal oxide nanoparticles to obtain new functional materials. In this study, binary chitosan-zinc oxide (CHT-ZnO) nanocomposite was successfully prepared by precipitation method. The cotton fabrics were treated by obtained bionanocomposites (BNC) using pad-dry-cure and sol-gel methods to increase their washing durability against multiple cycles. Moreover, (3-Glycidyloxypropyl) trimethoxysilane (GPTMS) was used to improve washing durability of BNC. BNC coated fabrics were tested for the antibacterial and UV protection performances. A ternary chitosan-zinc oxide-titanium dioxide (CHT-ZnO-TiO2) nanocomposite was also synthesized to observe the changes in UV properties for the first time. The results revealed that CHT-ZnO binary complex provided very good antibacterial and UV protective properties. The results also proved that sol-gel application by GPTMS enhanced these effects against multi washing cycles of BNC treated cotton fabrics in comparison to CHT treated fabrics. The application of the ternary system changed the UV protection factor (UPF) rating of fabrics from the “very good protection” category to the “excellent protection” category.