Silica-Chitosan Nanocomposite Coatings for Enhancing Hydrophilicity of Polyester Fabric

Abstract

The hydrophilicity of polyester fabric surfaces has been modified using silica-chitosan nanocomposites. The silica-chitosan nanocomposite was synthesized by the sol-gel method from sodium silicate and various chitosan concentrations of 0 – 1.5% at a pH of 3 – 5. A single jersey knitted polyester fabric was coated by silica-chitosan nanocomposite using the pad-dry-cure method. It was found that the chitosan concentration and the solution pH controlled the formation of various size distributions of sphere nanocomposites with an average size of 96.0-201nm. The coated polyester fabric with sphere silica-chitosan exhibits a rough surface and produces a contact angle approaching 0°, facilitating the polyester fabric's speed-up water absorption and hydrophilic properties.

Keywords

• chitosan
• hydrophilic
• nanocomposite
• polyester
• sodium silicate