Textiles can provide a suitable substrate to grow micro-organisms especially at appropriate humidity
and temperature in contact to human body. Recently, increasing public concern about hygiene
has been driving many investigations for anti-microbial modification of textiles. However, using
many anti-microbial agents has been avoided because of their possible harmful or toxic effects.
Application of inorganic nano-particles and their nano-composites would be a good alternative. This
review paper has focused on the properties and applications of inorganic nano-structured materials
with good anti-microbial activity potential for textile modification. The discussed nano-structured
anti-microbial agents include TiO2 nano-particles, metallic and non-metallic TiO2 nano-composites,
titania nanotubes (TNTs), silver nano-particles, silver-based nano-structured materials, gold nanoparticles,
zinc oxide nano-particles and nano-rods, copper nano-particles, carbon nanotubes (CNTs),
nano-clay and its modified forms, gallium, liposomes loaded nano-particles, metallic and inorganic
dendrimers nano-composite, nano-capsules and cyclodextrins containing nano-particles. This review
is also concerned with the application methods for the modification of textiles using nano-structured
materials.