Highly oxidation tendency of zerovalent iron nanoparticles limits itsvarious practical applications. In this work, stabilization of zerovalent ironnanoparticles (nZVI) in 3-Mercapto-1,2-propanediol (α-thioglycerol, α -TG)modified polyester nonwoven (PN) for improved catalytic and antibacterialapplication has been studied for the first time. Changes in wettability as wellas structural, morphological, thermal and catalytic properties of the resultingPN/α -TG/nZVI material were investigated by scanning electron microscopy,energy dispersive X-Ray, zeta potential measurements, thermogravimetricanalysis, differential scanning calorimetry, fourier transform infrared and UV–visible spectroscopies. Prior to functionalization, hydrophilic functional groupshave been introduced in PN surface by air atmospheric plasma treatment.Iron nanoparticles were immobilized by α-thioglycerol on the polyester fiberswith a multi-meter particle size. α -TG stabilized nZVI by reducing thetendency of easy oxidation. nZVI insertion resulted in high thermal stability ofPN. As an application, PN/α-TG/nZVI exhibited an excellent catalytic activityin the reduction of 4-nitrophenol with appreciable recyclability. The resultsfurther demonstrate that PN/α-TG/nZVI can be employed not only for toxiccompounds removal but also to inhibit the growth of bacteria at normalconditions which herein open new prospects for concrete industrialapplications of nZVI based multifunctional systems.