Cotton fabrics with robust ultraviolet protective property can be facilely prepared by depositing graphene oxide (GO) and chitosan (CS) upon fabric substrate via the electrostatic layer-by-layer self-assembly approach. The structure and morphology of the resultant fabrics were characterized by SEM, AFM, FTIR, XPS and dyeing color depth (K/S value), and the ultraviolet (UV) blocking properties were also further investigated. As expected, the UV protection ability was evaluated with Ultraviolet Protection Factor (UPF), and the cotton fabrics deposited with GO and CS showed more than 40-fold increase with a UPF value of 452 than that of control cotton (UPF rating at 9.37). Moreover, the LbL deposited fabric showed excellent washing durability even after 10 times water laundering. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.