The photocatalytic effects of textile materials treated with TiO2 and Fe/TiO2

Abstract

The research has been focused on the photocatalytic activity of the textile materials treated with TiO2 and TiO2 iron doped by pad-dry-cure and cationization - pad-dry-cure. The fabrics have been exposed to UV and visible light. The photocatalytic efficiency was evaluated by measuring the color differences (dL∗da∗db, dE∗, dC∗, dH∗) of the exposed and un-exposed samples on a Hunterlab spectrophotometer. The anti-fungal activity was assessed according modified ISO 20743:2007 standard. The results show that under visible light, independent of treatment used (padding or] cationization - padding), the highest discoloration is produced by TiO2-Fe on polyester. Under UV light, the highest discoloration is produced by TiO2-Fe only for the cationized materials. The cationization pre-treatment has no positive effect on MB photodegradation, the colour and lightness difference being similar or smaller than those obtained in the case of padding treatment without cationization. The degree of discoloration of PET and PET/co fabrics stained with MB is higher under visible light then under UV light. In the case of cotton, a slightly higher discoloration under UV light is noticed. All samples yielded very good reduction rates of Candida a., with 100% reduction for samples treated by padding. The reduction rates of Epidermophyton f. varies between 46.87% (D-V1-Fe) and to 99.18 % for A-V2-Fe.