Nanomaterials in Textiles: Performance, Health, and Environmental Aspects

This chapter looks at various applications of nanomaterials in the textile industry, how nanomaterials are incorporated into textiles, as well as potential environmental and health aspects. It presents some applications of nanoparticles to enhance the performance of textiles. The use of nanotechnology has developed rapidly in the field of textiles, due to its unique and valuable properties it can bring to textiles. Nanoparticles can provide high durability to treated fabrics because they have a large surface-area-to-volume ratio and large surface energy, showing a better affinity for fabrics. Nanoparticles are a new promising material for the functionalization of fibers and textiles and due to their properties, they are one of the most useful additives to provide additional functionality to fibers and textiles such as: protecting textiles from insect damage, resistance to dry soiling, self-cleaning applications, and protection from ultraviolet. During the wastewater treatment, some nanotextiles were found to contribute to environmental degradation.