Synthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles and its applications in the surface modification of textile materials

The application of nanotechnology in the textile finishing is increasingly being explored due to its unique and valuable characteristics. This has brought up many innovative finishes as well as new application techniques. The nano-finished textile materials are found to have better physical properties than the conventionally finished textiles, in areas such as anti-microbial properties, UV blocking, soil-resistance, etc. In the present work, zinc oxide nano-particles were prepared by wet chemical method using zinc nitrate and sodium hydroxide as precursors and solublized starch as stabilizing agent. These nanoparticles were impregnated onto cotton fabrics by pad-dry-cure method using acrylic binder. A fine medium weight cotton fabric samples were used for this. The aims are to impart anti-microbial functions to the textile substrate and the functional properties of coated fabrics. The nano-ZnO impregnated cotton fabrics showed excellent antimicrobial activity against two types of representative bacteria viz. gram-positive organism (S.aureus) and gram-negative organism. (E. coli).