Abstract
AbstractSelf-decontaminating cotton fabrics were designed, produced and characterized aiming at the decomposition of harmful molecules namely chemical warfare agents (CWAs) by photocatalysis under day light or indoor illumination. This was achieved through the creation of a hybrid organic-inorganic nanostructured textile composed of a thin layer of TiO2nanoparticles (NPs) generatedin situand chemically immobilised on the cellulose chains of cotton fibres. TiO2NPs were converted into anatase by a hydrothermal procedure at low temperature around 100°C. The fabrics covered with TiO2nanoparticles were examined in terms of their chemical composition, morphology, crystallinity, ageing, robustness and photocatalytic properties. In the whole preparation of the photocatalytic fabrics, only environment-friendly solvents (water or alcohol) were used. One of the important achievements in this work was providing fabrics with suitable photocatalytic activity under visible light. This was reached through plasmonic photocatalysis by generating noble metal nanoparticles (Au, Ag) and/ or their halides (AgBr, AgCl) neighbouring or topping the TiO2NPs in the fabrics. The kinetics of degradation of the different systems were analysed and proved that the resulting fabrics could efficiently decompose, under visible light, organic dyes and dimethyl methylphosphonate (DMMP), a CWA simulant.Graphical abstract
Highlights
Chemical weapons started to be used in large scale in World War I [1]
This phenomenon is expected given the wide gap of TiO2 anatase, which is around 3.2 eV, making the visible range photons are not energetic enough to promote the excitation of the appended TiO2
TiO2 NPs show to be strongly bound to the cotton fibres and after some washing tests they could be reused
Summary
Chemical weapons started to be used in large scale in World War I [1]. They were largely employed by the Nazis in World War II and, more recently, in several localized conflicts in the Middle East, in spite of the numerous conventions prohibiting their use [2,3,4]. The purpose of the CATALTEX project was to contribute for an efficient personal protection for people exposed to harmful molecules, bringing a new technological contribution for decontamination through their destruction For this purpose, time and effort were spent to develop, to design and to elaborate new “smart” textiles endowed with self-decontaminating properties based on a photocatalytic nanotechnology. Time and effort were spent to develop, to design and to elaborate new “smart” textiles endowed with self-decontaminating properties based on a photocatalytic nanotechnology These functionalized fabrics can be implemented in any country having a valuable industrial level to depollute infected areas invaded by toxic molecules, as CWAs, or even toxic pollution in industrial or agricultural environments or merely household products in indoor air. This paper revisits some of the results obtained in the CATALTEX project, concerning the production of “smart textiles” endowing selfdecontaminating properties capable of the total degradation of CWAs
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