Fabrication of highly durable polysiloxane-zinc oxide (ZnO) coated polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fabric with improved ultraviolet resistance, hydrophobicity, and thermal resistance

Minglei Wang; Maojiang Zhang; Lijuan Pang; Chenguang Yang; Yumei Zhang; Jiangtao Hu; Guozhong Wu

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2018.10.105

Fabrication of highly durable polysiloxane-zinc oxide (ZnO) coated polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fabric with improved ultraviolet resistance, hydrophobicity, and thermal resistance

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2019 Mar 1:537:91-100. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2018.10.105. Epub 2018 Nov 2.

Authors

Minglei Wang¹, Maojiang Zhang², Lijuan Pang¹, Chenguang Yang¹, Yumei Zhang³, Jiangtao Hu⁴, Guozhong Wu⁵

Affiliations

¹ CAS Center for Excellence on TMSR Energy System, Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 2019 Jialuo Road, Jiading District, Shanghai 201800, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
² CAS Center for Excellence on TMSR Energy System, Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 2019 Jialuo Road, Jiading District, Shanghai 201800, China; School of Physical science and Technology, Shanghai Tech University, Shanghai 200031, China.
³ State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China.
⁴ CAS Center for Excellence on TMSR Energy System, Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 2019 Jialuo Road, Jiading District, Shanghai 201800, China. Electronic address: hujiangtao@sinap.ac.cn.
⁵ CAS Center for Excellence on TMSR Energy System, Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 2019 Jialuo Road, Jiading District, Shanghai 201800, China; School of Physical science and Technology, Shanghai Tech University, Shanghai 200031, China. Electronic address: wuguozhong@sinap.ac.cn.

PMID: 30423492
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2018.10.105

Abstract

Developing a universal strategy to improve the properties of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fibers, such as UV resistance, hydrophobicity, and thermal resistance, is highly desirable in expanding the application of PET fibers. Herein, a highly durable and robust ZnO layer was deposited onto PET fabric via radiation-induced graft polymerization (RIGP) of γ-methacryloxypropyl trimethoxysilane (MAPS) and the subsequent sol-gel in situ mineralization with zinc acetate to produce wurtzite nanocrystalline ZnO. The as-obtained material, denoted as PET-g-PMAPS/ZnO. The interfacial layer consisted of Zn-O-Si and Si-O-Si covalent bonds not only leads to an improvement in adhesion between ZnO nanoparticles and its support, but it also overcomes the poor film-forming ability of inorganic particles. Most importantly, photocatalytic self-degradation of its organic support caused by the high photocatalytic activity of ZnO can be eliminated because of high bond energy of the organic-inorganic hybrid structure. PET-g-PMAPS/ZnO exhibited excellent thermal resistance, UV resistance and durability. Superhydrophobicity was achieved by simply annealing the PET-g-PMAPS/ZnO fabric at 200 °C in ambient air, and the coated fabric still retains its superhydrophobicity after 40 laundering cycles test and even stored for a few weeks. This study presents an effective method to overcome the bottle-necks in growing inorganic nanocrystals on polymeric supports surface.

Keywords: Polyethylene terephthalate fabric; Radiation-induced graft polymerization; Self-degradation; UV resistance; ZnO.