Surface modification of cotton fabrics treated with organic-inorganic nanocomposites

Abstract

Cotton fabrics have been treated with mixtures of hydrolysed organoalkoxysilanes and hydrolysed metal alkoxides toimpart novel properties to the cellulosic material. For this purpose, the cotton samples are impregnated with aqueoussolutions comprising various compositions of (3-glycidyloxy)propyltrimethoxysilane, tetraethoxysilane, (3-amino)propyltriethoxysilane,aluminium isopropoxide, titanium tetraisopropoxide, and zircon tetrabutoxide, and then dyed with the naturaldyestuff alizarin, as the hydrolysed metal alkoxide acts as mordant. The physico-mechanical properties, such as creaserecovery angle, tensile strength, stiffness, contact angle, and whiteness index (undyed fabric), are evaluated. The resultsshow that the incorporation of tetraethoxysilane or (3-amino) propyltriethoxysilane causes an alteration in physicomechanicalproperties. The treatment with metal alkoxides increases the contact angle. Dyeing with alizarin causes differentcolor shades which are evaluated in terms of the colorimetric data, such as L*, a*, b* and K/S values.