TiO2/hematite or magnetite/Ag nanoparticles synthesized on polyester fabric at various temperatures producing different superparamagnetic, self-cleaning and antibacterial textiles

An innovative tio2/iron oxide/ag nanoparticle, with crystal size of about 25 nm, was synthesized on polyester fabric to achieve different multi-features, including super-paramagnetism, antibacterial and enhanced self-cleaning properties. treatment temperature was varied at boiling and 130ºc, creating tio2/magnetite/silver and tio2/hematite/silver nanoparticles, respectively. the alkaline hydrolysis of the polyester surface was accompanied by nanoparticle synthesis, which forms a more active surface for nanoparticle adsorption. the co-operation of iron oxide and silver nanoparticles on the tio2 surface synergistically improved the self-cleaning efficiency of titanium dioxide nanoparticles by separation of electron-hole pairs, three and four times, for fabrics treated with tio2/fe3o4/silver and tio2/α-fe2o3/silver nanoparticles, respectively, compared with their corresponding control samples. moreover, both tio2/iron oxide/ag nanoparticle treated samples indicated an antibacterial efficiency of ≥ 99:99% against staphylococcus aureus bacteria. findings suggested that the developed magneto, bio and photo activities could be idealized, depending on the end use of the treated fabrics, through incorporation of different iron oxides in the prepared nanoparticles; magnetite providing the highest saturation magnetization and hematite the best self-cleaning toward degradation of methylene blue under sunlight irradiation.