Effect of nano zinc oxide on the structural characteristic, tensile thermal properties of textile fabrics

Nanotechnology provides the ability to engineer the properties of materials. Nano zinc oxide having particle size similar to 50 nm was used with different concentrations to coat the following textiles fabrics: cotton, polyester and blend cotton/polyester (65/35) using the pad-dry-cure method. The main advantages of these treated samples were their light weight, increasing surface area per unit volume with increasing treatment concentration. The treated samples were characterized through the following measurements: wide angle X-ray diffraction, mechanical tests (tensile strength and elongation percentage) and thermal properties, i.e. diffraction scanning calorimeter. The results indicated that the behavior of the change in crystal parameters for treated cotton samples greatly differed as compared for polyester. The highest intensity and d-spacing in case of treated cotton were observed at zinc oxide concentration 0.25% followed by a decrease. The polyester samples showed gradual increase in intensity by increasing the zinc oxide concentration, while the hybrid structure blend samples followed the mixture behavior rule. The order of improvement in crystalline parameters for the three treated samples was cotton > blend > polyester. Also, the order of improvement in mechanical properties was cotton > polyester > blend; these results may be due to the uniform distribution of ZnO nano-particles on the fabric surface thus the elasticity of the coated fabric increases.