In-situ synthesis of CaO and SiO2 nanoparticles onto jute fabrics: exploring the multifunctionality

Abstract

Fibrous based materials with exceptional functionalities have become a target of interest for researchers worldwide. One promising strategy for the development of active fibrous structures with improved functions is their functionalization with nanoparticles (NPs). In this work, jute fabrics were functionalized with calcium oxide (CaO) and silica (SiO2) NPs in order to obtain fibrous structures with several properties including, hydrophobicity, UV protection, antibacterial activity and the degradation of dyes ability. CaO and SiO2 NPs were synthesized via a simple in situ method, using sodium hydroxide (NaOH) as the reducing agent and water as solvent. Parallelly, the in situ synthesis of the CaO NPs was also tested. The final systems were fully characterized using Attenuated Total Reflectance-Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, Ground-State Diffuse Reflectance and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy and Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy. All these techniques confirmed the successful synthesis of the NPs as well as their well distributed presence onto the fabrics. The samples exhibited very good contact angle values, reaching 143.7\textdegree for the fabrics functionalized with CaO and SiO2 NPs and great values of ultraviolet (UV) protection factors (UPF), reaching 50+ for the functionalized fabrics. The developed systems also exhibited antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli and photocatalytic activity for the degradation of methylene blue. The wash durability of the nanocoating was also evaluated, confirming that the SiO2 improved the NPs' anchorage onto the fabrics. Overall, this work presents for the first time, the development of jute fabrics with CaO--SiO2 NPs with several functionalities.