Find in Library
Search millions of books, articles, and more
Indexed Open Access Databases
Sunlight-Driven Photocatalytic Active Fabrics through Immobilization of Functionalized Doped Titania Nanoparticles
oleh: Ume Arfa, Mubark Alshareef, Nimra Nadeem, Amjed Javid, Yasir Nawab, Khaled F. Alshammari, Usman Zubair
Format: | Article |
---|---|
Diterbitkan: | MDPI AG 2023-06-01 |
Deskripsi
Frequent washing of textiles poses a serious hazard to the ecosystem, owing to the discharge of harmful effluents and the release of microfibers. On one side, the harmful effluents from detergents are endangering marine biota, while on the other end, microplastics are observed even in breastfeeding milk. This work proposes the development of sunlight-driven cleaning and antibacterial comfort fabrics by immobilizing functionalized Zn-doped TiO<sub>2</sub> nanoparticles. The research was implemented to limit the use of various detergents and chemicals for stain removal. A facile sol–gel method has opted for the fabrication of pristine and Zn-doped TiO<sub>2</sub> nanoparticles at three different mole percentages of Zn. The nanoparticles were successfully functionalized and immobilized on cotton fabric using silane coupling agents via pad–dry–cure treatment. As-obtained fabrics were characterized by their surface morphologies, availability of chemical functionalities, and crystallinity. The sunlight-assisted degradation potential of as-functionalized fabrics was evaluated against selected pollutants (eight commercial dyes). The 95–98% degradation of dyes from the functionalized fabric surface was achieved within 3 h of sunlight exposure, estimated by color strength analysis with an equivalent exposition of bactericidal activities. The treated fabrics also preserved their comfort and mechanical properties. The radical trapping experiment was performed to confirm the key radicals responsible for dye degradation, and h<sup>+</sup> ions were found to be the most influencing species. The reaction pathway followed the first order kinetic model with rate constant values of 0.0087 min<sup>−1</sup> and 0.0131 min<sup>−1</sup> for MB and MO dyes, respectively.