Influence of alkaline treatment on surface roughness and wetting properties of hydrophobized silk fabrics

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to develop silk fabrics with dual-scale surface roughness, hydrophobicity, and self-cleaning properties. The surface roughness of 100% raw silk fabric was controlled by varying the temperature and time of degumming with NaOH solution to adjust the extent of sericin dissolution. Hydrophobization was carried achieved by depositing n-dodecyltrimethoxysilane on the silk fabric. The surface morphology, chemical composition, weight loss, tensile strength, luster, and color change of the fabric were measured, and the surface wettability was evaluated by water contact and shedding angle measurements. It was observed that the sericin on the fiber surface dissolved in the alkaline solution and formed nanoclusters. Consequently, because of the nanoscale roughness induced via the alkaline treatment, the contact angle increased from 0° to 152° after the hydrophobization, and the shedding angle decreased from 90° to 15°, indicating the superhydrophobicity of the resulting fabric. Therefore, alkaline treatment of silk fabric at 70℃ for 10 min was determined as the optimum condition for developing a self-cleaning silk fabric with an outstanding superhydrophobicity. The physical properties, such as tensile strength, luster, and color, were found to be the same even after the treatment.

Keywords

alkaline treatment degumming process silk fabrics superhydrophobicity self-cleaning

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