20.500.12556/RUL-182027 Chitosan–TiO$_2$–curcumin composite coatings: toward nature-inspired, protective and sustainable silk materials The rational use of carbohydrate polymers as functional matrices for integrating inorganic and organic components remains a key challenge in developing sustainable multifunctional materials. Here, a process-oriented, bio-inspired strategy for fabricating a chitosan-centred multifunctional composite coating is presented. This approach uniquely combines plasma-assisted activation of the silk surface, chitosan immobilisation, and subsequent controlled in situ generation of TiO2 nanoparticles in the presence of curcumin, a naturally derived polyphenolic compound. The resulting chitosan/TiO2/curcumin composite system simultaneously imparts antibacterial, UV-shielding, and photocatalytic self-cleaning functions to the silk. Chitosan provides strong antimicrobial activity, maintaining robust bio-barrier antibacterial protection in the composite system and achieving over 99.5% inhibition of Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli growth. Curcumin acts as a TiO2 photosensitiser and charge-transfer mediator, suppressing electron-hole recombination and enabling efficient visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity, as confirmed by accelerated Rhodamine B dye degradation and effective coffee stain removal. Complementary UV absorption by TiO2 (UV-B) and curcumin (UV-A) delivers broad-spectrum UV protection with a UV protection factor of 32.1. Overall, this work demonstrates a distinct carbohydrate polymer-driven fabrication paradigm for engineering high-performance textiles with integrated multifunctional protective properties. chitosan-based composites bio-based compounds multifunctional textile antimicrobial UV protection self-cleaning nanokompoziti na podlagi hitozana spojine na biološki osnovi bioosnovane spojine fečfunkcionalne tekstilije protimikrobnost UV zaščita samočistilnost true false true Angleški jezik Slovenski jezik Članek v reviji 2026-04-23 04:25:50 2026-04-23 07:50:43 2026-04-24 04:55:13 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2026 0 0 19 str. art. 125341 Vol. 383 2026 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova Objavljeno NiDoloceno 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 677 1879-1344 10.1016/j.carbpol.2026.125341 276046851 1-s2.0-S0144861726004583-main.pdf 1-s2.0-S0144861726004583-main.pdf 1 02C2631878F39E09907614A34F6AD82D 5a0e1fc573a307b202b0e4e4a64c83c99cedbaff3f36b430e46b0c1233cfd882 fffdcb75-3ed7-11f1-b0ab-0050569b8976 https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=232950 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0144861726004583 1 80cd2ab9-3ebb-11f1-b0ab-0050569b8976 https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=232937 Naravoslovnotehniška fakulteta 0 0 0