Hydrophobicity of Cotton Fabric Treated With Silica Nanoparticles

Abstract

To obtain the hydrophobicity cotton fabrics, cotton fabrics were treated with silica nanoparticles and/or accost effective Water Repellent agent (WR agent).Two different silica nanoparticles were synthesized via a sol–gel process and their shapes, sizes, and compositions were characterized. It was found that silica particles are spherical and have diameters of 150 and 300nm. For the cotton fabrics treated with the WR agent alone the water contact angles on the fabric surface remained lower than 20°approximately at the WR agent concentration of 0.3wt% or less. Silica nanoparticle treatment itself did not change the hydrophilic surface of cotton fabric indicating that water drops were absorbed into fabrics due to the hydroxyl groups on both cotton and silica nanoparticle surfaces. However for the cotton fabrics treated with both silica nanoparticles and the WR agent a contact angle above 105°can be obtained even at the very low WR agent concentration of 0.1wt%. Therefore,hydrophobic cotton fabrics could be obtained the combined treatment of silica nanoparticle and WR agent, which is cost effective com-pared with fluorinate silane treatment. Keywords — Hydrophobicity cotton, silica nanoparticles, water Repellent (WR), Contact Angle (CA).