Temperature Effect On Stabilizing TiO₂/Ag Composite Nanoparticles On Polyester Fabric For The Enhancement Of Antibacterial Durability

Metal nanoparticles(MNPs)are recognized as a class of antimicrobial reagent for textile industry.However,their weak adhesion on polymeric fibers will cause unwanted loss of MNPs,resulting in an unsatisfied antibacterial durability,and even serious impact on the environment and human health.To enhance the stability of the MNPs immobilized on fabrics,several approaches have been investigated by the other researchers so far,but achievement of stable immobilization and antibacterial durability still remain challenging.Nanoparticles such as Cu,Fe,Ag,TiO2,Zn,and Ag are highly used in the textile sector for antibacterial treatment.But these NPs have poor washing durability without binder.Here,we propose a heating process for stabilizing TiO2 and Ag NPs on a plasma-treated polyester fabric without using any binder.The fabric was fabricated by dipping in solution followed by one step heat pressing and reduction using sodium borohydride.The polyester fabric is functionalized using cold plasma treatment for enhancing the adhesion and stabilizing of Titanium and Silver Nano particles.The process was repeated until the significant amounts of the TiO2-Ag NPs were loaded.The temperature effect on the immobilization of the inorganic particles was investigated.The surface morphology of the coated fabric samples was analyzed using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope,as well as the elemental analysis was achieved using X-ray powder diffraction,Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy analysis.The results showed that the surface of the fabric after plasma modification,the fiber surface was highly loaded with Ag-TiO2 NPs.The adhesion and fixation of the NPs were significantly improved the increasing the temperature.The higher temperature range showed higher fixation of the NPs inside the polymer.We found that the heating process could endow the finishing fabric with superior antibacterial ability and durability when the temperature was higher than 150?,as the bacterial reduction percentages(BR)for both bacteria E.coli and S.aureus reached a high level over 95%,and the BR could be kept at higher than 90%even after 50 washing cycles.This process may have the potentiality towards scale manufacturing of various healthcare products.