Sol-Gel Applications in Textile Finishing Processes

In the chapter, sol‐gel applications in textile finishing process such as flame retardancy, water, oil repellency, ultraviolet (UV) protection, self‐cleaning, and antibacterial and antiwrinkle processes are reviewed. Sol‐gel technology is well known in materials, metallurgy, ceramic, and glass industry since 1960 and has been researched in textile industry in the last decade. Sol‐gel technology has some advantages when compared to conventional textile finishing process. Sol‐gel technology, which is a method applied to the inorganic metal alkoxide or metal salts to organic textile materials, could impart the high, durable activity and multifunctional properties to different textile materials in the same bath at one step using low concentration of precursors. In addition, sol‐gel technology presents alternatively economical, ecological, and environmental friendly process due to one‐step application, using low concentration of chemicals, nonhalogenated chemicals, and nonformaldehyde release when compared to conventional processes

A New Application Method of Chitosan for Improved Antimicrobial Activity on Wool Fabrics Pretreated by Different Ways

WOS: 000279105800005Antimicrobial treatments have become more important for the textile materials especially used in sportswear, activewear, and casual wear since they can easily be contaminated by perspiration leading to bacterial growth and body odor. In this work, antimicrobial activity of chitosan in a silica matrix on pretreated wool fabrics was studied. The pretreatment processes were applied by two different ways (enzymatic and enzymatic+hydrogen peroxide). Afterwards chitosan solutions were applied to the untreated samples and to the samples that were pretreated by two different ways to give antimicrobial effects. The antimicrobial activity of wool fabrics treated in various methods was assessed before and after repeated washings (up to 10 cycles) by the application of standard test method AATCC 147-1998. The morphology of the treated fabrics was investigated by SEM and their characterizations were made by the FT-IR spectral analysis. Results revealed that pretreatment ways and chitosan application methods were quite important for adsorption and diffusion of chitosan on wool fabrics and washing stability. From the SEM images, it was clearly observed that pretreatment processes caused some degradation on the surface of the fiber; but combined processes were found to be less degradative and more effective