Protective textiles from Ag-decorated forest-like amorphous TiO2 on cotton fabric

Forest-like amorphous TiO2 layer was successfully deposited on cotton fabric, to improve its protective performance including infrared (IR) shielding, UV shielding, and hydrophobic performance, Ag nanoparticles were further decorated on its surface using magnetron sputtering technology. To protect the coated functional layers, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was employed. The protective fabric was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction, and physical performances were evaluated by Infrared spectrometer, UV-Vis spectrometer, contact angle analyzer. The results indicated that the protective fabric showed excellent IR shielding, UV shielding, and hydrophobic performance, even after 10 times washing treatment for common commercial washing machine. The as-prepared PDMS@Ag@TiO2@cotton fabric shows great potentials as a protective textile.

Automated summary

A forest-like amorphous TiO2 layer was successfully deposited on cotton fabric to enhance its protective performance, including infrared shielding, UV shielding, and hydrophobicity. Ag nanoparticles were further decorated on the surface using magnetron sputtering technology, and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was employed for protection. The fabric showed excellent performance even after multiple washing cycles, making it a promising protective textile.