Titanium dioxide release behavior during wash of UV-protective garments by total reflection X-ray fluorescence

Abstract

The increasing worldwide use of different kinds of clothes with ultraviolet protection in recent years, in particular employing titanium dioxide nanoparticles, is driving the researchers’ attention to the possible environmental problems due to titanium release. This study aims at determining the amount of titanium released from seven ultraviolet-protective garments into the wash water employing total reflection X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. For this, a wash protocol was designed based on the international standard ISO 105-C06:2010 and the literature. Pieces (4 cm × 10 cm) of textile were sampled from the garments and submitted 30 times to the wash protocol. The wash water produced in each wash was then prepared for total reflection X-ray fluorescence analysis. Results showed that the titanium released in 30 washes was between 8.6 ± 1.3 µg/L and 168 ± 3 µg/L. Every sample released titanium in the first to third wash, except sample 1, which first released titanium in the 18th wash. The greatest titanium release in one single wash was also the 18th wash of sample 1, which released 77 ± 2 µg/L. These results showed the good performance of total reflection X-ray fluorescence spectrometry in quantifying low titanium amounts in wash water, which is a hard task even for well-established analytical methods.