Abstract
The aim of this work is to investigate the influence of weave structures and silica coatings obtained via sol-gel process on the thermal insulation properties of cotton samples. For this reason three main weave structures (plain, satin, and piqué) of cotton fabric were selected with different yarn count, threads per cm, and mass per square meter values. Thereafter, only for the plain weave, the samples were padded using silica sol formed by hydrolysis and subsequent condensation of 3-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane under acidic conditions. The silanized plain weave samples were characterized by TGA and FT-IR techniques. The thermal properties were measured with a home-made apparatus in order to calculate thermal conductivity, resistance, and absorption of all the treated fabric samples. The relationship between the thermal insulation properties of the plain weave fabrics and the concentration of sol solutions has been investigated. Fabrics weave and density were found to strongly influence the thermal properties: piqué always shows the lowest values and satin shows the highest values while plain weave lies in between. The thermal properties of treated high-density cotton plain weave fabric were proved to be strongly influenced by finishing agent concentration.
Highlights
In the last decade, the advent of nanotechnologies has spurred significant development and innovation in the field of textile technology
In order to verify the deposition of sol-gel based film onto textile fabrics, FT-IR attenuated total reflection (ATR) investigation was performed onto cotton samples
An experimental approach based on IR Thermometry has been applied for thermal properties characterization of a wide variety of cotton fabrics of different weave structure, as well as for the analysis of the influence of sol-gel finishing GPTMS concentration
Summary
The advent of nanotechnologies has spurred significant development and innovation in the field of textile technology. Sol-gel represents a versatile synthetic route to get these properties It is a two-step reaction (hydrolysis and condensation) that, starting from (semi)metal alkoxides (e.g., tetraethoxysilane, tetramethoxysilane, and titanium tetraisopropoxide), leads to the formation of completely inorganic or hybrid organicinorganic coatings at or near room temperature [5]. These porous coatings are capable of protecting the polymer surface by creating a physical barrier acting as insulator, improving some specific properties, like flame retardancy, water or oil repellency, and wear resistance [4]. Due to the porous structure of the solgel based coatings, the finishing can affect the thermal insulating properties, those related to the IR thermal radiation [18]
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