Antiviral Textiles: A Review on their types and Significance
The world is ever developing with new inventions and technology to cater the changing lifestyles of people. The COVID-19 pandemic has stressed an increased importance of health products. One such innovation is antiviral textile which are which are capable of preventing the microbes or viruses to contact the surface of textiles. Natural fibre textiles are the best medium for the growth of many microbes which leads to degradation and unpleasant odours. To prevent all these undesirable effects, textiles are impregnated with antiviral nanoparticles in the fibres or fabrics. The use of nanoparticles makes the textiles antimicrobial, anti odour, water and stain repellent. In the last few decades, natural polymers have gained much attention among scientific communities owing to their therapeutic potential. Antiviral textiles are classified into a few broad groups, such as polymeric materials, metal ions/metal oxides, and functional nanomaterials, based on the type of materials used at the virus contamination sites. This review is an overview of antiviral textiles and their types, properties, structure of polymers and nanoparticles involved and their significance.