Synthesis and characterization of self-cleaning cotton fabrics modified by TiO₂ through a facile approach

Self-cleaning fabrics have been successfully prepared by depositing and grafting TiO₂ nanoparticles via an aqueous sol process at low temperature. SEM, HRTEM, ATR-IR and XRD have been adopted as the characterization techniques. Anatase TiO₂ nanoparticles were well developed in size of 3-5 nm. These TiO₂-coated cotton fabrics possessed distinct self-cleaning properties, such as bactericidal activity and photocatalytic decomposition of dyes. The photocatalytic activity of the treated fabrics was fully maintained upon several numbers of photodegradation cycles. And the prepared TiO₂-coated cotton fabrics inhibited obviously the growth of bacteria both in the liquid Luria-Bertani Medium (LBM) and on the solid LBM.