Application of TiO₂ Nanoparticles for Obtaining Self-Decontaminating Smart Textiles

 

Željko Senić

Sonja Bauk

Maja Vitorović-Todorović

Nataša Pajić

Aleksandra Samolov

Dušan Rajić

The worldwide use of pesticides together with the possibility of chemical warfare agent’s usage in military actions, terrorist attacks or in accidents, increased the risks of chemical contamination occurrence and consequently stipulated the need for the development of new protective materials and equipment with improved properties. Present day protective gear and incorporated materials afford only physical protection/barrier against toxic chemicals. Current research activities are thus directed towards the design of the so-called “smart textiles”, which are capable of “self-decontamination”, i.e. decomposition of toxic chemicals. This goal can be achieved by metal oxide nanoparticles incorporation onto textile substrates. For this purpose, TiO₂ nanoparticles have shown as the most promising, because of the easiness of their synthesis, low price and low toxicity. In this article we described the low temperature methods of TiO₂ nanoparticles synthesis (for a special application on textiles), different ways of their deposition on different types of textiles and the methods for testing the properties of thus obtained textiles.

Key words: photocatalysis, TiO₂, textile, textile materials, self-decontaminating materials, synthesis, chemical contamination.