Nano TiO 2 photo-catalyst and sodium hypophosphite for cross-linking cotton with poly carboxylic acids under UV and high temperature

Abstract

The present research attempts to accomplish a cross-linking finish on the bleached cotton fabric by using a nano titanium dioxide photo-catalyst which can effectively operate under UV irradiation. In this study, the bleached cotton fabrics were treated with two cross-linking agents including 1,2,3,4-butane tetracarboxylic acid (BTCA) and citric acid (CA) in the presence of sodium hypophosphite (SHP) and nano TiO 2 (NTO) and then, cured at three different conditions: UV irradiation (UV), High temperature (High temp) and a combination of UV and high temperature (UV–Temp). In addition, the bending length, yellowness index, wet and dry crease recovery angle, tensile strength retention (%) and water drop absorption time of treated samples were evaluated. Also, treated cotton fabrics and NTO were characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) and X-ray Diffraction (XRD). The results show that samples treated with BTCA have higher values of dry crease recovery angle (DCRA) as compared with samples treated with CA. It was also found that DCRA values are higher for samples treated under UV–High temp condition than samples treated under UV or High temp condition alone. Nevertheless, yellowness indexes with BTCA were lower than CA and tensile strengths retention (%) with CA were higher than BTCA.