Study On The Effect Of One-step Coupling/Atomic Layer Deposition On The Properties Of Cotton Fabrics

Cotton fabrics have been widely used in various textile industries because of their excellent properties of comfort,warmth retention and air permeability.However,in order to develop high performance and functional textiles for special fields,it is necessary to impart better mechanical and physical properties to cotton fabrics.In this paper,titanium isopropoxide?TTIP?was used as the raw material to couple the cotton fabric with the one-step coupling reaction and the Atomic Layer Deposition?ALD?,so that the surface of the cotton fabric was formed with titanium dioxide?TiO₂?coating in order to enhance the infrared barrier property,hydrophobicity and abrasion resistance of cotton fabrics.This paper will use two different ways to deal with the cotton fabrics.First one-step coupling method is adopted,the cotton fabrics were placed in TTIP ethanol solution,and the TTIP is uniformly and completely immersed in the cotton fabrics by high temperature oscillation and then reacted with hydroxyl groups on cotton cellulose to form TiO₂,and,the TiO₂ was coated on the surface of cotton fabrics.The property test results show that the infrared thermal barrier rate of fabrics treated by one-step coupling is from 38.8% rose to the highest 63%,and the infrared power barrier rate from 70.4% rose to the highest 72.6%,indicated that the cotton fabrics treated by one-step coupling has good infrared barrier property.In addition,the water contact angle of the fabrics increase with the increase of the TTIP concentration by more than 120°,which indicated that the coupling treatment made the fabric possess hydrophobic property.At the same time,the abrasion resistance of cotton fabrics after coupling treated will be better by the fabric abrasion test.The results of scanning electron microscopy?SEM?showed that nano-scale particles were formed on the surface of the cotton fibers after one-step coupling treatment.Subsequently,the TiO₂ particles were detected by EDS.Thermogravimetric?TG?analysis results showed that the thermal residual rate of fabrics will increase with the increase of TTIP concentration.Secondly,ALD method was used to deposit different thickness TiO₂ on the surface of cotton fabrics by controlling the number of deposition cycles.The infrared barrier performance test results showed that the infrared thermal barrier rate of cotton fabric by ALD deposition from 38.8% rose to the highest 68.9%,and the infrared power barrier rate from 70.4% rose to the highest 80.7%,which show that ALD enhances the infrared barrier properties of cotton fabric.The hydrophobicity of fabric was measured by contact angle meter,and the results showed that with the increase of the number of ALD cycles,the contact angle of the fabric increases,and the contact angle of the fabric is as high as 150.19 ° when the 1600 cycle is deposited,which reach to super hydrophobic standard.By SEM,TEM and EDS,it was confirmed that the surface of cotton fiber treated by ALD was covered with a layer of TiO₂ coating.In addition,the TG showed that ALD promoted the residual rate of the fabric.Finally,the fabrics were subjected to varying grade of friction,and the friction durability of various physical properties of fabrics treated with one-step coupling and ALD is compared.The results show that ALD treatment not only has better infrared barrier properties and hydrophobic properties,but also the infrared barrier and hydrophobic durability of ALD treated cotton fabric are better than those of cotton fabric treated by one-step coupling method.It is found that the fibers in the upper part of the fabric are broken and some of the regions of fabric become thinner after being worn by SEM,it is also the reason for the decrease of fabric various properties.This paper introduces one-step coupling method and atomic layer deposition processing method.These two methods can significantly improve the fabric infrared barrier properties,hydrophobic properties and abrasion resistance.Because of the uniform and stable coating,the atomic layer deposition has better durability to the fabric.Therefore,the atomic layer deposition can be used in the functional finishing of various fabrics.