UV curing: An alternative method for fixation of β‐carotene containing microparticles substances onto cotton fabrics by acrylic binder

Capsulation technology is one of the methods that have been utilized for gaining various functional properties of textile materials. With the technology, in recent years, textile materials have been made to exhibit functions such as vitamins, fragrances, moistening effect, insect repellent, and anti‐cellulite. To establish permanent bonding between capsule‐based materials and textile materials, which also provides efficiency against washing, crosslinking agents are used. Commercial capsules are applied to a fabric by using acrylics or polyurethanes as the cross‐linker at a drying temperature of around 100°C and thermo‐fixation conditions are between 110 and 130°C. The capsules used for fragrance and aromatherapy applications, which contain volatile oil, can be affected in high‐temp conditions that cause evaporation and degradation of active ingredient. In this study, beta‐carotene as the active ingredient was dispersed within ethyl cellulose via spray drying first and then applied to textile materials to maintain the tanning effect. Besides thermal curing, the UV curing process with different photoinitiators will be utilized for the fixation of capsules onto textile materials. Hence, the UV curing technique will be used as an alternative to the thermal fixing of conventional cross‐linkers. After application of the capsules onto textile materials, characterization, and various efficiency tests such as color measurement, X‐ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis were performed. As a result, textiles containing β‐carotene microparticles that are resistant to 10 washing cycles were produced. Moreover, all the β‐carotene fixed fabric showed antioxidant activity and thermal stability. Consequently, it could be said that the UV curing process on textile materials can be an alternative curing process to the thermal curing process.