Pretreatment of wool/polyester blended fabrics to enhance titanium dioxide nanoparticle adsorption and self‐cleaning properties

This research aims to enhance the self‐cleaning properties of fibre‐blended fabric using surface pretreatment prior to the application of titanium dioxide nanoparticles. To this end, the polyester/wool fabric was modified, in that the wool fibres were oxidised with potassium permanganate and the polyester fibres were hydrolysed with lipase before nano processing. Butane tetracarboxylic acid was also used to enhance the adsorption of the nanoparticles and also to stabilise them on the fabric surface. The self‐cleaning properties of the fabric were examined through staining of the fabric with CI Basic Blue 9 and then discolouring by exposing to ultraviolet and daylight irradiation. Some other properties of the treated fabrics, such as water drop absorption, crease recovery angle and bending were investigated and are discussed in detail. The colour changes of different samples indicated an appropriate discoloration on the titanium dioxide‐treated fabrics after ultraviolet and daylight irradiation. Overall, the surface pretreatment of the wool and polyester fibres improved the self‐cleaning properties of the fabric significantly.