No abstract

Cotton fabrics were water-repellent-finished by radical ultraviolet curing of silicone and urethane acrylates with different formulations. The fabrics were impregnated with undiluted resins and with toluene solutions or water emulsions. Moreover, cationic ultraviolet-curable systems were also investigated, such as an epoxy-functional polysiloxane and mixtures of an epoxy resin with hydroxyl-containing silicone additives. The gel content and polymerization yield were considered for the ultravioletcuring process evaluation. Water-resistance properties were determined in terms of the contact angle, wettability, moisture adsorption, and water vapor permeability measurements, whereas the morphology and surface composition of treated fabrics were examined with scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis.

In this work knitted wool fabrics were coated by a Si:O x :C y :H z thin film with the aim to promote pilling resistance. The wool samples were plasma coated in a radio frequency (RF) glow discharge using hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO) as the precursor, in mixture with argon and oxygen gases, for different deposition times and reaction pressures, at constant discharge power. Deposited films were characterized by means of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and surface morphology by means of scanning electron microscopy; moreover, propensity to pilling of treated samples was investigated, showing that treated fabrics had a better pilling performance respect to untreated ones.