Self-cleaning TiO2-SiO2 clusters on cotton textile prepared by dip-spin coating process

Abstract

Titanium-silica (TiO2-SiO2), a type of semiconductor metal oxide cluster compound, has been widely used as oxidative catalysts and dye agents. In this research, TiO2-SiO2 on cotton textile has been utilized as self-cleaning agents by cross linking with acrylic acid compound. The clusters of TiO2-SiO2was modified by a series of Ti:Si molar compositions, i.e. 1:1; 2:1 and 1:2. The successful modification of the cotton textile’s fiber surface was confirmed with an increase in mass. The FTIR spectra displayed an intense peak at 1700 cm–1, indicating the presence of carboxyl functional groups for both the coated cottons with and without TiO2-SiO2 coating. SEM-EDX characterization showed that the TiO2-SiO2 clusters was homogeneously distributed on the cotton. The self-cleaning performance of TiO2-SiO2coated cotton textile was evaluated in the degradation of methylene blue (MB) dye and examined with UV light (120 min). Results showed that TiO2-SiO2coated cotton with Ti: Si molar ratio of 1:2, which was prepared by dip-spin coating in acrylic acid with 24 h of soaking time, achieved the best self-cleaning effect in the degradation of methylene blue.