Study on the influence of different textile fabrics on the color and antibacterial properties of Cu2O structural color based on Mie scattering

Structural colorization as an eco-friendly coloring method has received more and more attention in textile field. Researchers have used different materials to prepare structural color fabric based on different mechanisms of structural color formation. In recent years, Cu2O microspheres with a high refractive index have also been used for textile coloring based on Mie scattering. However, the influence of different types of textile substrates on Cu2O structural color is still unclear. In this study, Cu2O structural colors were prepared on different fabric substrates of polyester, linen, silk, polyester/cotton and linen/cotton to investigate the influence of different textile fabric substrates on the color and antibacterial properties of Cu2O structural color. The results show that Cu2O microspheres with five different particle sizes can form five different structural colors of purple, blue, green, yellow-green and orange on all of these fabrics. However, the structural color with same color show different color brightness on different fabrics, which may be caused by different fabric structures, fiber types and diameters. Cu2O structural colors on all these different fabrics can obtain excellent antibacterial properties with antibacterial rates against S. aureus and E. coli higher than 99.9%. All of the Cu2O structural color fabrics can obtain good colorfastness by introducing the commercial polyacrylate adhesive. The physical properties of all the fabrics were slightly influenced by the Cu2O structural color. This research provides experimental basis for the practical application of Cu2O microspheres structural color in textile fields.