Nanochitosan usage on textile finishing applications

Because of constantly increasing environmental pollution, toxicological effects of industrial waste and the reflection of decreasing natural resources, environmental friendly manufacturing methods and usage of biopolymers obtained from sustainable resources became an important issue in textile industry. Chitosan has several application areas in textile industry because of its biodegradability, biocompatibility and nontoxicological effects on living organisms. With the introduction of nanotechnology into our lives, nanochitosan particles were obtained in order to take the advantage of macro-sized chitosan more effectively. Therefore, more effective results were achieved by using less amount of chitosan. Although there are several methods to reduce the size of chitosan, ionic gelation is most the commonly used method because it is an easy method and it does not require the use of toxic chemicals In this study; to make the applicaton of different forms of chitosan (nanochitosan and chitosan-metal nanocomposites) and normal (macro) sized chitosan onto the cotton and wool fabrics by environmental friendly methods such as plasma and sol gel as an alternative to conventional finishing methods. The treated fabrics are compared to physically and chemically (FTIR, SEM, XPS, strength, friction coefficient, air permeability, colour fastness and dyeing properties, etc.). Keywords: biopolymer, chitosan, nanochitosan, wool, cotton, sol-gel, atmospheric plasma.