Technical Viscose Textiles Treated with Ln-Metal Organic Framework: Photochromic/UV-Protective/Antimicrobial Potentiality

Immobilization of metal–organic frameworks within the textile material for manufacturing protective textile materials is described as a challenging field of investigation. The point of novelty in the current approach is the preparation of technical textiles from viscose fabrics with photochromic/UV-protective/antimicrobial potentiality. Multi-finished viscose fabrics were prepared via cationization of viscose with sequential incorporation of Ln-BDCs (Eu-BDC and Tb-BDC) within viscose and cationic viscose in one-pot infrared-assisted technique. Herein, glycidyl trimethyl ammonium chloride (GTA) is uniquely exploited for the cationizing of viscose (GTA-viscose). The prepared photochromic fabrics showed a strong blue emission color (with excitation at λ_ex = 270 nm) under UV light. Successful domination of Ln-BDC which could be converted to lanthanide oxides consequently acted in stabilization of the fabrics at elevated temperature. Viscose fabrics modified with Tb-BDC showed higher thermal stability rather than those prepared with Eu-BDC. The evaluated UV-protection factor (UPF) for GTA-viscose (5.3) was largely enhanced to 39.5 after immobilization of Eu-BDC to be rated as very good affinity of blocking and was non-significantly lowered to 31.6 even after 10 washing cycles. Fabrics modified with Eu-BDC showed the highest antimicrobial action against bacteria and fungi. For GTA-viscose, after impregnation of Eu-BDC, the estimated inhibition zones were 16 mm, 15 mm, and 15 mm against E. coli, S. aureus, and C. albicans, respectively. In summary, the current approach demonstrates a unique technique for the preparation of multifunctional viscose with successive impregnation of either Tb-BDC or Eu-BDC to be exhibited with superior/durable photochromic/microbicide/UV-protective potency.