Developing nanotechnology-based textiles for skin protection against UVradiation

To protect against the influence of ultraviolet (UV) irradiation from daily life and evenchanges in climate and stratospheric ozone, wearing UV-protective clothing is an effectiveapproach to reduce skin damages from excessive UV exposure. So, the aim of this study wasto develop nanotechnology-based textiles for skin protection against UV radiation.In this study, the concentration ۲wt.% of ZnO nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) were used to treatthe cotton textiles (۱۰۰% cotton) by using pad-dry-cure method. In order to increase theadsorption of ZnO-NPs, once surface activation was provided with low pressure plasma andanother time, the textiles were treated in presence of Citric acid (۳wt.%) as a cross-linker.Characteristics of ZnO NPs were identified by UV–Vis spectroscopy, field emission scanningelectron microscopy (FE-SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier infrared transformationspectroscopy (FTIR). Also, morphological changes of the textiles were evaluated by usingSEM-EDC and FTIR. Finally, ultraviolet protection factor (UPF) was calculated based onspectroscopy data.The XRD pattern confirmed peaks assigned for ZnO-NPs. UV–Vis spectroscopy showed apeak absorbance in ۳۶۳nm for ZnO-NPs. Also, ZnO-NPs had the spherical shape with anaverage size of ۴۰.۹۵ ± ۹.۲۷nm. The FTIR spectra verified the existence of the functionalgroups of O–H, C=O, C=C and C-F. UPF for untreated textiles, treated textiles with crosslinkerand treated textiles with plasma was ۳۵.۱, ۱۸۳ and ۴۰۴, respectively. These resultsshowed that the highest UPF values were obtained when samples were treated by plasmaThese results show that the treated cotton textiles have excellent protection categories whencompared to untreated cotton textiles. Also, high UPF values have belonged to the textilessurface functionalization upon plasma treatment, due to the increased adsorption of ZnO NPs.

Keywords:

Nanotechnology , UV radiation , Skin protection , Textiles , ZnO nanoparticles