EFFECT OF ULTRASONIC WASHING ON THE PROPERTIES OF SUPERHYDROPHOBIC COTTON FABRIC COATED WITH EPOXY COMPOSITE FILM

The objective of this work was to evaluate properties of cotton fabric samples coated with epoxy composite film filled with APTES-modified silica (SiO2) nanoparticles. The characteristics of superhydrophobic fabrics were investigated as function of the durability of ultrasonic washing. As-prepared samples, the fabric coated with 20 vol% SiO2 modified APTES exhibited typical characteristic of superhydrophobic material having high water contact angle (WCA) of 152° and low contact angle hysteresis (CAH). The values of WCA and CAH of fabrics slightly decreased with increasing number of washing cycles. But even after 10 washing cycles the samples showed almost spherical drops of common household liquids (water, coffee, juice, honey, and ketchup sauce) on their surface, indicating their excellent self-cleaning ability. Also stains of graphite powder (as model for dust) on the coated fabrics were easily rinsed out with water. Moreover, the coated specimens may have potential to be used for oil/water separation: their separation efficiency was higher than 99%, and was as high as 97% after 10 washing cycles

THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE PROPERTIES OF FORMSTABLE PARAFFIN/RECYCLE BLOCK CONCRETE COMPOSITE PHASE CHANGE MATERIAL

In this research, the form-stable composite phase change material was developed by incorporating paraffin on recycle block concrete (RB) through the vacuum impregnation method. The compatibility and thermal properties of RB impregnated with paraffin ranging from 0-35 wt% were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Results revealed that paraffin was uniformly absorbed in RB with a good physical compatibility. The optimum adsorption ratio of paraffin in RB was 25 wt% which produced phase transition temperature of 52.85 OC and latent heat of 30.98 J/g. The obtained form-stable paraffin/RB composite PCM had proper latent heat and phase transition temperature and can be applied for thermal energy storage applications such as solar heating and cooling in buildings