Polymer-particle enhanced visible light range photocatalytic activity on textile applications

Abstract

Extension of photocatalytic activity within the visible light range has an immense importance on the ability of manufacturing self-cleaning textiles that are active indoors. This study focuses on assisting problems, which have delayed the commercialization of the photo-catalytically active textiles by following innovative technological developments in nanotechnology. Polymeric additives are utilized to prepare composite photocatalytic particles with the ability of extending light absorption in the visible light range. Techniques are introduced to avoid the deterioration of the composite particles during their application on textiles in addition to uniform coating strategies to enable an optimized concentration for improved photocatalytic efficiency. It is demonstrated that the titania (TiO2) particles in anatase form extended absorption in the visible light range in the presence of branched titania particles. Correspondingly, an optimized dip coating process is evaluated for textile manufacturing, providing a systematic methodology to enable the production of self-cleaning textiles to be able to manufacture them with commercialization potential.