Nanomaterials: Application & Properties, 2018 IEEE 8th International Conference on Nanomaterials: Applications & Properties

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Combining the Lotus Effect and Photocatalytic Properties of Ni/Al Doped ZnO for Smart Textile Applications
Anatolii Orlov, Valeriia Poliukhova, Veronika Ulianova, So-Hye Cho

Last modified: 2018-09-14

Abstract


Nowadays many studies devoted to the use ofnanomaterials for the purification of water, air, thecreation of self-cleaning surfaces. Grate attention alsopaid to textile materials with such properties. One ofthe most promising materials for this purpose are ZnOand TiO2 [1]. ZnO has the advantage for coveringtextile materials due to the possibility of growingnanostructures of different morphologies. In fact, theprocess boils down to "boiling" of pre-treated fabricsat atmospheric or elevated pressure. Pre-treatment is asol-gel method for creating seeds in tissue fibres: amultiple impregnation process for 30 s zinc acetatedihydrate and subsequent drying at 100 °Ctemperature. A hydrothermal method based on thezinc nitrate solution and hexamethylenetetraminewith pH = 7 used to grow the nanostructures. Surfacescoated with nanorods have non-wetting (lotus effect)(Fig. 1a) and can be structured to enhance the self-cleaning effect (Fig. 1b). During the experiments, thephotocatalytic activity of ZnO nanostructures shownon the example of methylene blue decay under UV.(Fig. 2). The photocatalytic effect in nanostructuresdeposited on the fabric gives antibacterial properties[2]. ZnO also effectively absorbs the entire spectrumof UV with subsequent long low-intensity re-emissionin the soft UV range. This effect observed inexperiments with a UV sensor based on ZnOnanorods [3]. The combination of self-cleaningeffects, antibacterial properties and UV absorption-conversion make fabrics coated with ZnOnanostructures very promising for medical, cosmetic,sports and special applications, as well as for waterand air filtration.