Review on: developing UV protection for cotton fabric

In recent years, there is a progressive increase in UV radiation on human skin caused by the depletion of the ozone in the earth’s atmosphere. As long-term exposure to UV light can result in a series of negative health effects such as acceleration of skin aging, photodermatosis (acne), erythema (skin reddening), and even skin cancer. Developing textiles with UV protection functionality has been widely researched up to now. This review summarized the interaction between UV radiation and cotton surfaces and presents recent researches focused on the topic. The review also reported the relation between ultraviolet light and the structural, physical, and chemical properties of textiles. Moreover, conventional and novel chemicals and techniques of UV protection for cotton fabric such as UV absorbers, nanoparticles, and layer-by-layer self-assembly (LbL) have been discussed in this paper.