TiO2 Nanosols Applied Directly on Textiles Using Different Purification Treatments

Self-cleaning applications using TiO₂ coatings on various supporting media have been attracting increasing interest in recent years. This work discusses the issue of self-cleaning textile production on an industrial scale. A method for producing self-cleaning textiles starting from a commercial colloidal nanosuspension (nanosol) of TiO₂ is described. Three different treatments were developed for purifying and neutralizing the commercial TiO₂ nanosol: washing by ultrafiltration; purifying with an anion exchange resin; and neutralizing in an aqueous solution of ammonium bicarbonate. The different purified TiO₂ nanosols were characterized in terms of particle size distribution (using dynamic light scattering), electrical conductivity, and ζ potential (using electrophoretic light scattering). The TiO₂-coated textiles' functional properties were judged on their photodegradation of rhodamine B (RhB), used as a stain model. The photocatalytic performance of the differently treated TiO₂-coated textiles was compared, revealing the advantages of purification with an anion exchange resin. The study demonstrated the feasibility of applying commercial TiO₂ nanosol directly on textile surfaces, overcoming problems of existing methods that limit the industrial scalability of the process.