Application Of Sol-Gel Technique In Anti-Felting Finishing Of Wool Fabric

Sol-gel technique is one of venerable techniques in the neoteric colloid chemistry. It is presently the initiative step where sol-gel technique is used in functional finishing of fabric. When organic modified silane is applied to textile fabric, sol can produce an even, transparent, porous and functional membrane with flexibility on a variety of substrates, which can be filled with functional materials. So the surface modification or functional finishing of substrates can be carried out by this way.Wool is an important textile raw material and has a lot of excellent features, such as soft handle, good elasticity, excellent hygroscopy. Wool can be used to make all kinds of superior fabrics. But because of the shrinking of wool, fabric shrinks during home-laundering, which greatly affects the use of fabric. Due to environmental pollute by using Chlorine/Resin process with higher values of AOX in wastewater for shrink-resist treatments, the researches and techniques focus on non-chlorine shrink-resist treatments.Sol-gel technique, as a non-chlorine easy care finishing of wool, is investigated in this paper. On the basis of former research, the feasibility of this new application is further discussed.GPTMS (3-glycidyloxypropyltrimethoxysilane) is prehydrolyed and then the finishing of anti-felting of wool fabric is carried out by pad-dry-cure process. The influence of sol forming and sol stability, pH value, concentration, temperature and different solvents, the parameter of pad-dry-curing process (pH values, concentration, curing temperature and curing procedure), as well as the influence of treating qualities on handle and durability of treated wool is researched. By means of comparing the shrink proof properties of treated fabric, shrink-resist treatment is optimized. Other physical properties of treated and untreated wool fabrics is measured and evaluated. The SEM pictures are taken simultaneously to investigate the surface structures with and without sol-gel treating.Based on the experiment result, after sol-gel treatment, a transparent netted thin film deposited on the surface of the wool may decrease the levelness and close the scales effectively, which endows wool fibers an anti-felting property, which could measure up the standard of shrink proof of IWS TM No.31.Different methods of preparing stable nano-Al₂O₃ disperse solution and nano-materials combined with sol-gel technique applied in shrink-resist treatment are also investigated.The conclusion in the thesis indicated a feasible method to surface modification of textiles by utilizing nano-materials combined with sol-gel technique. It is an innovation and will bring the whole textile industry considerable economic effect.