Eco-Friendly Procedure for Rendering the Antibacterial and Antioxidant of Cotton Fabrics via Phyto-Synthesized AgNPs With Malva sylvestris (MS) Natural Colorant

There is a growing interest for producing multifunctional cellulose fabrics using green and sustainable technology. In this study, we explored an eco-friendly procedure for dyeing cotton fabrics with Malva sylvestris (MS) as a natural colorant and rendering antibacterial cotton fabric by the silver nanoparticles. MS colorants were extracted from dried petals in water using the ultrasound technique, cotton fabrics were dyed with the extracted MS colorant at 100°C for 90 min. The colorimetric data and colorfastness properties were investigated in the absence and presence of tannic acid (TA) as a bio-mordant. Results indicated that MS dye had a high potential for reducing the silver nitrate, so that the silver particle size distribution on cotton fabric was obtained 50–80 nm, and TA had a positive effect on the MS extract and reduced Ag on the cotton. Furthermore, the reduction of bacterial growth of the dyed cotton considerably (up to 99%) improved by AgNPs. The wash-, and light-fastness properties of samples dyed with MS were enhanced from moderate to good-very good by mordanting.

Flexible carbonized cotton/thermoplastic polyurethane composites with outstanding electric heating and pressure sensing performance

Although flexible wearable conductive textiles for various applications have attracted great attention from researchers in recent years, it is still a great challenge to fabricate conductive textiles with the advantages of a simple fabrication process, excellent flexibility, environmental friendliness, and superior performance. Carbonized cellulose materials are gradually emerging in flexible electronics due to their flexibility, low cost, abundant raw materials, and electrical conductivity. Herein, carbonized cotton fabrics were fabricated from cotton fabrics via a simple carbonization process. Then carbonized cotton/thermoplastic polyurethane composites, with excellent electric heating performance and pressure sensing performance, were fabricated through a dip-and-dry method. Carbonized cotton/thermoplastic polyurethane composites show satisfactory electrical conductivity, electric heating temperature rising performance, heating stability, and resistance stability. The surface temperature of carbonized cotton/thermoplastic polyurethane composites can reach ≈53°C within 1.5 min at 5 V. Besides this, the fabricated flexible pressure sensor based on carbonized cotton/thermoplastic polyurethane composites exhibits the combined superiority of a wide working range (0–16 kPa), high sensitivity (98.77 kPa−1), and excellent durability (>4000 cycles). Moreover, the finger motions and wrist pulse can be monitored in real time. These results demonstrate the potential application value and broad developmental prospects of carbonized cotton/thermoplastic polyurethane composites in flexible wearable electronics.