Fabrication of lightweight and flexible cellulose acetate composite nanofibers for high‐performance ultra violet protective materials

Novel lightweight and flexible cellulose acetate (CA)/zinc oxide (ZnO)/multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) composite nanofibers were fabricated via electrospinning technique with aim to study the potential of such CA/ZnO/MWCNTs composite nanofibers as effective ultra violet (UV) protecting textile materials. The influence of ZnO and MWCNTs content and thickness of nanofibers mats on the ultra violet (UV) protection of electrospun CA/ZnO/MWCNTs composite nanofibers have been evaluated with response surface methodology (RSM) and quadratic regression model. The highest to lowest effects of selected parameters on UV protection values are ordered as follows: Thickness > > ZnO content > MWCNTs content. The optimized quadratic model predicted the highest UV protection value (UPF = 180.8) at conditions of 4.9 wt% ZnO content, 1.1 wt% MWCNTs loading, and 79.5 μm of the sample thickness. The obtained UV protection and photo‐degradation results established that the optimized quadratic model displayed appropriate performance for evaluating the involved input parameters and calculation of UV protection. POLYM. COMPOS., 40:3325–3332, 2019. © 2019 Society of Plastics Engineers