Effect of dispersing agents on synthesis of nano titanium oxide and its application for antimicrobial property

Abstract

With the growing demand for comfortable, clean and hygienic textile goods, an urgent need for production of antimicrobial textiles has arisen. In this work, synthesis of nano titanium oxide has been done by sol gel method and the effect of dispersing agents with varying ionic character during synthesis on the particle size of the synthesised nano particles in terms of crystallinity and particle size was studied. It was observed that cationic as well as non-ionic dispersing agents led to reduction in size of the titania particles produced whereas anionic dispersing agent led to increase in the particle size. This method provides a simple method for reduction in size of titanium dioxide particles with a minor modification of a standard process. The synthesized nano titanium dioxide particles were successfully applied onto cotton to obtain Antimicrobial activity. The Durability of the antimicrobial activity was upto 10 washes with the help of Binder. The effect of the application of nano titanium oxide on the physical properties of the substrate, such as tensile strength, bending length, and crease recovery angle has been analysed.