Construction of Cu2O single crystal nanospheres coating with brilliant structural color and excellent antibacterial properties

Structural coloration as a novel eco-friendly coloring method without using chemical dyes or pigments has been extensively studied for textile coloring. However, structural colors in creatures not only endow them with vivid colors, but also give them special functions. Therefore, the development of functional structural colored textiles with brilliant colors and special functions will have more practical application values. In this study, the structural colored and functional textiles were prepared by one-step spray coating cuprous oxide (Cu2O) single crystal nanospheres on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fabric. Cu2O single crystal nanospheres with five different diameters were prepared to obtain purple, blue, green, yellow-green and orange noniridescent structural colors due to the Mie scattering of Cu2O nanospheres. Cu2O structural colored fabric showed excellent washing, rubbing and bending colorfastness due to the strong adhesion of polyacrylate (PA). Cu2O structural colored fabric showed excellent antibacterial properties for both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The antibacterial rates of Cu2O structural colored fabric after treatment with 60 min for E. coli and S. aureus were close to 100%. Therefore, this research provides the experimental basis for the development of functional structural colored fabrics with brilliant color and excellent antibacterial properties.