Progress in self-cleaning textiles: parameters, mechanism and applications

With the growing concerns about the conservation of the environment and the minimal consumption of water, the self-cleaning approach for textile materials is gaining much popularity and interest day-by-day. There are various approaches for producing self-cleaning textiles surfaces, of which the application of nanoparticles is more effective. The self-cleaning property can be achieved by either creating super-hydrophobic surfaces or applying photocatalyst materials. Super-hydrophobic self-cleaning surface follows the principle of the behavior of liquid on surface roughness. On the contrary, under the exposure of light radiation, the photocatalytic self-cleaning surface follows the chemical redox reaction mechanisms to degrade the organic materials including microorganisms or stains. Several previous studies were done to implement self-cleaning functionality to textile materials. Hierarchical surface roughness using nano-whisker or nano-spherical structure using SiO2, carbon nanotubes or ZnO nanoflower produces super-hydrophobic self-cleaning surface with excellent water contact angle whereas different semiconductor nanoparticles including TiO2, ZnO, SnO2 exhibit photocatalytic properties. There are various suggested methods of synthesis and fabrication methods to impart nanoparticles on textile materials. In this review paper, the progress and technological advances in the field of nanoparticles impregnated self-cleaning textiles materials are discussed with different fabrication methods and nanoparticles. Apart from various challenges and limitations, nanoparticles coated self-cleaning textile materials have a wide range of applications in different fields.