Visible-Light-Driven, Dye-Sensitized TiO2 Photo-Catalyst for Self-Cleaning Cotton Fabrics

We report here the photo-catalytic properties of dye-sensitized TiO2-coated cotton fabrics. In this study, visible-light-driven, self-cleaning cotton fabrics were developed by coating the cotton fabrics with dye-sensitized TiO2. TiO2 nano-sol was prepared via the sol-gel method and the cotton fabric was coated with this nano-sol by the dip-pad-dry-cure method. In order to enhance the photo-catalytic properties of this TiO2-coated cotton fabric under visible light irradiation, the TiO2-coated cotton fabric was dyed with a phthalocyanine-based reactive dye, C.I. Reactive Blue 25 (RB-25), as a dye sensitizer for TiO2. The photo-catalytic self-cleaning efficiency of the resulting dye/TiO2-coated cotton fabrics was evaluated by degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) and color co-ordinate measurements. Dye/TiO2-coated cotton fabrics show very good photo-catalytic properties under visible light.