1951年英國(guó)影片《白衣男子》中，主人公西德尼縫制的見(jiàn)光自潔白色套裝讓許多觀眾大開(kāi)眼界,。隨著納米技術(shù)的發(fā)展,，澳大利亞和中國(guó)科學(xué)家已研制出一種自潔纖維，用它制造的衣料具有見(jiàn)光自潔特性。
 
但英國(guó)《每日郵報(bào)》2月11日提醒人們,，鑒于自潔纖維缺乏安全性檢測(cè),，不排除其危害人體、污染環(huán)境的可能,。
 
香港理工大學(xué)參與研究
 
這一研究成果刊登在新近一期美國(guó)化學(xué)學(xué)會(huì)期刊《材料的化學(xué)性質(zhì)》（Chemistry of Materials）上,。澳大利亞莫納什大學(xué)和中國(guó)香港理工大學(xué)研究人員在文章中說(shuō)，沾有紅酒的自潔毛料經(jīng)過(guò)幾分鐘光照,，紅酒污漬開(kāi)始褪色,，晾曬一天之后，酒漬完全消失,。
 
自潔面料就是在普通的面料纖維中加入一層薄薄的納米二氧化鈦,。納米二氧化鈦粒徑僅為10納米至50納米，相當(dāng)于一根頭發(fā)粗細(xì)的二千五百分之一,。這種物質(zhì)已被添加進(jìn)各種防曬,、護(hù)膚等化妝品中，起到增強(qiáng)皮膚吸收的作用,。研究人員告訴記者,，混合形成的自潔纖維顆粒也非常小，100萬(wàn)個(gè)顆粒合起來(lái)才相當(dāng)于針尖大小,。
 
這種纖維顆?？刹粩嘧晕腋隆Ｋ陉?yáng)光照射下所產(chǎn)生的顆粒與空氣中的氧氣發(fā)生作用,，可以分解和蒸發(fā)塵土和污漬,，達(dá)到清洗目的。相似技術(shù)已經(jīng)用于制造可以自我清洗的窗戶,。
 
臟衣服臟床單曬曬即可
 
研究人員已經(jīng)用自潔纖維面料縫制了一件衣服,。試驗(yàn)發(fā)現(xiàn)，在陽(yáng)光照射下,，衣服纖維自我清潔效果不錯(cuò),。研究人員設(shè)想人們今后再也不用洗床單、羽絨被,、枕頭,，發(fā)現(xiàn)它們臟了只需掛在晾衣繩上曬一曬，就能煥然一新,。值得一提的是,，這種纖維的自潔方式比傳統(tǒng)的化學(xué)清洗劑更好，不會(huì)破壞衣服的質(zhì)感,。
 
研究人員預(yù)計(jì),，5年之后,，這種纖維就可用于自我清潔衣服批量生產(chǎn)。（來(lái)源：信息時(shí)報(bào)）
 
（《材料的化學(xué)性質(zhì)》（Chemistry of Materials）,，10.1021/cm702661k,，Walid A. Daoud, K. Qi）

生物谷推薦原始出處：

ASAP Chem. Mater., ASAP Article, 10.1021/cm702661k
Web Release Date: January 23, 2008

Copyright © 2008 American Chemical Society
Self-Cleaning Keratins

Walid A. Daoud,*† S. K. Leung,‡ W. S. Tung,† J. H. Xin,‡ K. Cheuk,‡ and K. Qi‡

School of Applied Sciences and Engineering, Monash University, Churchill, VIC 3842, Australia, and Nanotechnology Centre, ITC, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China

Received September 18, 2007

Revised Manuscript Received December 13, 2007

Keratins, a class of biologically fibrous proteins, are tough and insoluble due to the formation of adjacent peptide bond that allow close alignment of the sulfur-containing amino acid constituent, cysteine, enabling the formation of disulfide bridges, cross-links, that confer rigidity and thermal stability to keratinous materials, which make them an important class of fibrous materials. Keratins are a type of natural protein and the main structural constituents of animal tissues. Keratinous protein fibers such as wool, silk, hemp, and spider silk find numerous applications such as insulation, tires, and strong fibers in addition to textiles.1, 2 Although, protein fibers offer excellent physical and processing properties, as biological materials, they lack the minimally required thermal and chemical resistance and intrinsic reactivity of their constituting polypeptide chains to enable modification or fine-tuning of their properties. They are also subject to photodegradation in presence of UV containing light such as solar and indoor lighting. These special characteristics have hindered further functionalization of proteinic materials and limited their full utilization despite their abundance, practicability and biodegradability. Proteinic fibers, capable of converting incident light to self-cleaning power to decompose its stains, dirt, and harmful microorganisms in a process of photocatalytic purification, are very interesting materials for various applications. In this contribution, self-cleaning keratin fibers have been realized following a bottom-up nanotechnology approach in which anatase nanocrystals of titanium dioxide are formulated and carefully applied to the fibers via a near room temperature sol–gel process in order to maintain their intrinsic properties while conferring self-cleaning properties and self-protection against UV degradation. This may enable wider utilization of these natural fibers. Colloids of anatase titanium dioxide, a highly efficient photocatalyst, have recently been prepared via a near room temperature process.3, 4 This synthetic innovation implies that the application of anatase nanocrystals can be extended to low thermal resistance materials such as biomaterials.5–9 However, due to additional low chemical and thermal resistance and liability to photodegradation of protein fibers, a tailor-made anatase colloid should be devised that suits the target application. It was found that a synthetic formulation of an acidic aqueous colloid of titanium dioxide using hydrochloric acid produces single-phase anatase nanocrystals (4–5 nm), which is applicable to a keratin fiber representative, wool, without affecting its intrinsic properties. Although these functionalized fibers were found to possess excellent self-cleaning and UV-protection properties, these properties may not be stable. TiO2 has high affinity toward hydroxyl and carboxylic groups,7, 10–13 especially the latter. However, keratin fibers contain less than 50% of those functional groups. Therefore, it is necessary for these fibers to undergo a chemical modification to their backbone chains to enable stable bonding with the anatase nanocrystals. Acylation of fibers by acid anhydride allows for enrichment of carboxylic groups. Other functional groups on the amino acid residues such as amino, hydroxyl, phenol and thiol groups are also potent reactive sites.14–18 Following the introduction of additional carboxylic groups into the fiber, the change of the binding ability toward metal ions have been studied.14, 18 Succinic anhydride is a nontoxic and mild acylating agent. On the basis of the observed properties of the modified fibers, it was found that the acylation reaction allows for increasing functionality and reactivity toward anatase nanocrystals which in turn resulted in enhanced self-cleaning functionality. This finding may open up new applications and extendibility to other proteinic materials.

Succinylation of fibers was carried out in DMF at 60 °C as shown in Scheme1. Details of the succinylation reaction are given in the Supporting Information. This reaction introduces additional carboxylic groups to proteinic fibers which are potential reactive functional groups. ATR-IR spectroscopy was applied to verify the reaction of the anhydride with the fibers through the changes in the spectral regions and the characteristic absorptions of the ring-opened anhydride molecules (Figure1). The spectrum of succinylated fiber PS showed spectral changes in the regions 1750–1700 and 1152 cm−1. The band at 1750–1700 cm−1 is ascribed to the carboxylic groups that arise from the opening of the anhydride ring and the spectral absorption at 1152 cm−1 corresponds to the C−O−C stretching which could arise from the formation of ester bonds by the acylation of hydroxyl groups on the amino acid residue. After modification, the fibers were treated with nanosized TiO2 colloid T60 by a dip coating process. Attempts were made to examine the chelating effect between titanium atom and carboxylate groups of modified fibers by ATR-IR technique, however the absorption band at 1530 cm−1 assigned to the coordination of oxygen atoms of carboxylic groups toward titanium atoms11–13 cannot be easily observed in the spectrum of T60-coated modified sample TS because of the overlapping with bands corresponding to other functional groups of the fibers.

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