Hygienic, antibacterial, UV-shielding performance of polyacrylate/ZnO composite coatings on a leather matrix

A facile method was used to fabricate ZnO microstructures with microrod-like, hollow fusiform-like, and hollow columnar-like morphology in different organic solvent. Then, polyacrylate/ZnO composite emulsions were obtained by physical blending of polyacrylate emulsion and ZnO microstructures. The effect of ZnO with different morphologies on water resistance, water vapor permeability, mechanical property, and UV-shielding performance of polyacrylate film were investigated. The results showed that hollow columnar-like ZnO was more conductive to improve the comprehensive performance of composite films because it possesses larger specific surface area. The pure polyacrylate emusion and polyacrylate/hollow columnar-like ZnO composite emulsion were applied in leather matrix finishing process, and the results demonstrated that leather matrix finished by polyacrylate/hollow columnar -like ZnO composite emulsion shows excellent hygienic and anti-bacterial performance.