Development of new composite fibers with excellent UV radiation protection

Abstract : This work reports the design and functionalization of new composite-based polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fibers with high anti UV radiation. Polyethylene terephthalate fibrous nonwovens were coated by materials oxides (MOx) like titanium dioxide (TiO2), zinc oxide (ZnO) and silicon dioxide (SiO2). Chitosan (CT) and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) polymers were used to ensure the good surface compatibility of the resulting composite PET-PVDF-MOx-CT. These composites were fully characterized and the chemical coatings, surface modification, physical and thermal properties were investigated. Incorporation of materials oxides resulted in the formation of strong cross-linked chitosan network. The developed modification on PET nonwovens allows to highly reducing the UV radiation with an excellent blocking rate and a good UV protection factor (80.5–113.4). An outline mechanism is proposed for the UV protection. This was explained by the surface compatibly and the interfacial bonding occurred in the matrix. Regarding to the above results, the current work developed a facile process for the production of advanced materials based nonwovens with excellent UV blocking.