Modification of Fibers with Nanostructures Using Reactive Dye Chemistry

Reactive dyes conventionally used to chemically bind chromophores to fabrics have been used to develop a platform technology that can modify commercially available fibers with nanoscale structures. To illustrate this concept, commercial nylon and cellulose fibers have been modified with gold nanoparticles of three sizes, metal organic framework (MOF) crystals, and quantum dots in five sizes. The gold modified cellulose and nylon samples have colors that vary based on the size of the gold particles, and the particles remained attached to the fibers, even after being washed with solvents, water, and soap. The MOF was grown on the fibers after applying reactive dyes to anchor the metal building unit to the fibers, and the process produced cellulose fibers with surface areas of ~980 m²/g. Both the nylon and cellulose MOF modified fabrics show preferential adsorption of ethylene over ethane and the ability to adsorb ammonia from air. Quantum dot modified nylon and cellulose fibers have fluorescent properties consistent with the unbound particles and remained attached to the fibers after washing with organic solvents, water, and soap. Applications are broad, and this work provides a first step at coupling conventional dyes and nanotechnology.