Functionality of Inorganic Nanostructured Materials onto Wool Fabric

Abstract

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were prepared through chemical reduction method and characterized by UV-Vis absorption spectra to examine its formation with different AgNO₃ and sodium borohydride concentrations and by transmission electron microscope (TEM) to evaluate its particle size and size distribution. The wool fabric was first treated separately with AgNPs and titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO₂NPs) and then dyed with C.I. Acid Orange 74 (AO74). The dye uptake of pre-treated wool fabric with nanoparticles was compared to conventional dyeing of wool. The existence of AgNPs and TiO₂NPs on wool fabric during acid dyeing increases the dye uptake up to 27 and 39%, respectively. The dyeing kinetic of wool fabric was positively affected by treating with AgNPs and TiO₂NPs. Also, the activation energy of AO74 diffusion was calculated before and after NPs-treatment that confirms the physicsorption dyeing process. The NPs-treatment leads to produce a wool fabric with excellent antibacterial and photocatalytic properties for TiO₂NPs-treated wool fabric and very good antibacterial and good photocatalytic properties for AgNPs-treated wool fabric. In addition, NPs-treatment has no adverse effects on fastness properties of the functionalized dyed wool fabric.

Keywords: Silver nanoparticles, Titanium dioxide nanoparticles, Wool, Acid dyeing.