A comparative study on titanium dioxide sol-gel treatment for protein fabrics, focusing on UV transmittance effects

Abstract

Sol-gel technology offers a promising route to impart new properties to textile substrates. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the effect of precursor concentration in the sol-gel processing on the inherent properties of sol-gel treated textile substrates. In this study, titanium (IV) isopropoxide (TTIP) was used as the precursor material, and colourless TiO₂ sol solutions were prepared at three precursor concentrations. Wool fabrics were coated with as-prepared TiO₂ sol solutions via a dip-dry-cure technique. The optical, morphological, tensile properties and washing durability of both untreated or sol-gel treated wool fabrics were then evaluated. The results show that TiO₂ sol-gel prepared at a relatively higher precursor concentration resulted in a thicker coating and a better UV protection on the treated wool fabric. TTIP precursor concentration also played an important role in the washing durability of TiO₂ sol-gel coatings. Both the tensile strength and elongation at break of the treated wool fabrics were largely improved, however the degree of improvement seemed to be less dependent on the precursor concentrations of as-prepared TiO₂ sol-gels.