Cotton fabric finished with low temperature prepared nano-TiO_2 sol and its catalysis for dye degradation

The nano-TiO2 sol was prepared at room temperature through hydrolysis of tetra-n-butyl titanate,and then loaded on the surface of cotton fabric using finishing method,thus obtained nano-TiO2 finished fabrics,that were characterized and used as photocatalysts for oxidative degradation of Rhodamine B in water.Some factors affecting degradation such as molar ratio of water to n-butyl titanate,aging time and weighting percentage of the nano-TiO2 finished fabrics were investigated with respect to the decoloration value,and reuse of nano-TiO2 finished fabrics and degradation reaction kinetics of Rhodamine B were also examined.The results showed that increasing molar ratio of water to n-butyl titanate led to the smaller particle size and more homogeneous nano-TiO2 sol during its preparation,and the nano-TiO2 sol could form an anatase TiO2 nano-crystalline film on the surface of cotton fabrics through padding-curing process.Increasing the weighting percentage of the nano-TiO2 finished fabrics significantly accelerated dye degradation,and increasing molar ratio of water to n-butyl titanate and aging time could also improve the photocatalytic activity of the nano-TiO2 finished fabrics.In addition,the nano-TiO2 finished fabrics could be reused for dye degradation,and the degradation of Rhodamine B in the presence of nano-TiO2 finished fabrics followed the pseudo-first order kinetics.