A novel technique for producing durable multifunctional textiles using nanocomposite coating.

The treatment of textiles with Ag/TiO(2) nanoparticles causes a brownish color that limits the application of this otherwise good composite. In this paper, a novel method is introduced to overcome this problem. To this end, the effect of various concentrations of cross-linkable polysiloxane (XPs) and Ag mixed with XPs on TiO(2) treated fabrics has been investigated. The results reveal the performance of the method in the application of Ag and TiO(2) nanoparticles separately. In addition to the major effect of XPs on durability, the synergistic effect of applying XPs, especially Ag mixed with XPs, on TiO(2) has been confirmed. Unexpectedly, increasing the concentration of XPs not only did not limit the TiO(2) activity but allowed light absorption by the TiO(2) particles due to the low refractive index of XPs. Therefore, XPs treatment can be helpful for increasing the bioactivity and the general photo-catalytic activity of TiO(2). The results also showed that the hydrophilicity-hydrophobicity of treated substrate can be adjusted over a broad range by controlling the concentrations of these two nanoparticles and the XPs ratio. Other characteristics of treated fabrics such as antibacterial, self-cleaning, stain photo-degradability, UV protection, air permeability and washing durability were also investigated. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.