Microwave assisted fabrication of Nano-ZnO assembled cotton fibers with excellent UV blocking property and water-wash durability

Nano-ZnO assembled cotton fibers, with excellent UV blocking property and good water-wash durability, have been successfully fabricated using microwave assisted precipitation and crystallization process synchronously in situ for the first time. Here, zinc nitrate hexahydrate was used as zinc resource and sodium hydroxide was used as precipitate. The asobtained samples were characterized by powder X-ray diffractometer (XRD), filed emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), and energy-dispersive spectrometry (EDS), UV/Visible spectroscopy and Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Wurtzite ZnO with about 30–40 nm in diameter was fabricated in the lumen as well as in mesoporous structures of cotton fibers. The as-prepared samples have excellent UV absorbing activity over a broad range in the region from 225 nm to 380 nm. The crystallinity and UV blocking properties keep unchangeable as the former after being washed for 60 min in 33 l water. FTIR results reveal that there is no peak shift and new peak occurred, which indicates that no chemical bond exist between nano-ZnO and cotton fibers. Mechanical force is the only way to bond nano-ZnO to cotton fibers in the experimental condition. ZnO nanoparticles and wax existing in cotton fibers can combine to a firmly hybrid layer in the surface and the inner of cotton fibers during microwave treatment, which may bring the good water-wash durability.