Functionalization of cotton fabric with graphene oxide nanosheet and polyaniline for conductive and UV blocking properties

• Functional cotton fabric fabricated by GO nanosheet and PANI nanocomposites.
• Combination of vacuum filtration deposition and in-situ chemical polymerization.
• High conductivity, ultrastrong UV protection and excellent laundering durability.
• Enhanced uniformity of coated PANI with the deposition of GO nanosheet.

Multifunctional cotton fabric with high electrical conductivity and ultrastrong UV radiation protection properties was successfully fabricated by coating graphene oxide (GO) nanosheet dispersion on fabric surface via vacuum filtration deposition (VFD) method, and then the treated fabric was assembled with polyaniline (PANI) by in-situ chemical polymerization process. The structure and morphological studies showed that the deposition of GO nanosheet is benefit to enhance the uniformity of aniline polymerization on the surface of PANI-GO-cotton fabric. Furthermore, the electrical resistivity of PANI-GO-cotton decrease approximately 106 times compared with control cotton, reached at 48.35 Ω cm. PANI-GO-cotton also performed ultrastrong UV radiation protection ability with a UPF value of 445.21, which is superhigher than that of control fabric (UPF rating at 6.86). Moreover, even repeated 10 times water laundering showed nearly no effect on electrical conductivity and UV radiation protection efficiency.