Nanomaterials for Functional Textiles and Fibers

Abstract

Nanoparticles are very interesting because of their surface properties, different from bulk materials. Such properties make possible to endow ordinary products with new functionalities. Their relatively low cost with respect to other nano-additives make them a promising choice for industrial mass-production systems. Nanoparticles of different kind of materials such as silver, titania, and zinc oxide have been used in the functionalization of fibers and fabrics achieving significantly improved products with new macroscopic properties. This article reviews the most relevant approaches for incorporating such nanoparticles into synthetic fibers used traditionally in the textile industry allowing to give a solution to traditional problems for textiles such as the microorganism growth onto fibers, flammability, robustness against ultraviolet radiation, and many others. In addition, the incorporation of such nanoparticles into special ultrathin fibers is also analyzed. In this field, electrospinning is a very promising technique that allows the fabrication of ultrathin fiber mats with an extraordinary control of their structure and properties, being an ideal alternative for applications such as wound healing or even functional membranes.

Recent Advances in Soft E-Textiles

“…The contribution of nanotechnology in the advancement of new materials for advance textile is remarkable [37,38]. The existing functional properties in textile fabrics can be improved using nanomaterials, but textiles can also be produced with new properties or, in a single textile material, with an amalgamation of various functions [39].…”

Design of Nanostructured Functional Coatings by Using Wet-Chemistry Methods

“…The concept of superhydrophobia can be defined as those surfaces which prevent water contact angles higher than 150 • , which is also commonly known as the artificial lotus effect. The appropriate texturing and roughening of the resultant surfaces on the nano and microscale are used to obtain these extreme wetting characteristics [39,40]. In order to obtain these specific superhydrophobic surfaces is necessary to combine two variables such as low surface free energy and a high degree of roughness.…”

The multiple effects of organoclay and solvent evaporation on hydrophobicity of composite surfaces

“…• and low-contact angle hysteresis play an important role in technical applications ranging from microfluidics, 3 protection against marine fouling, 4 membrane distillation, 5 self-cleaning paints and textiles, 6 anti-icing surfaces, 7 and lab-on-chip devices.…”