V. M. Barantsev, and S. V. DegtyarevModification of polyester fibres with metal salts containing highly charged cations increases their hydrophilicity. The fibres are covered with a multilayer continuous polymeric metal oxide, and calculation of its thickness places it in the nanosystem category.The hygienic properties of fabrics for undergarments and clothing are basically determined by their electrifiability and ability to absorb moisture, i.e., the hygroscopicity and capillarity, which are quantitative characteristics of the hydrophilicity of materials. Unfortunately, the most common synthetic fibres (polyamide, polyester, etc.) exhibit highly electrifiability and low hydrophilicity [1, 2], which makes them unsuitable for fabrication of fabrics with properties close to cotton and significantly restricts the area of their application. Previous studies [3] with polycaproamide fibres showed that treatment with solutions of metal salts [4] increases their hygroscopicity from 3.5 to 5.3%.To study the possibility of increasing the hydrophilicity of polyester fibres by treating them with aqueous solutions of metal salts, we investigated the effect of chromium(III) and tin(IV) chlorides on fabric made of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) fibres (Type 86031). The hydrophilicity of the material was evaluated with two indexes the hygroscopicity and the capillarity.The fabric was treated with solutions of chromium (III) and tin(IV) chloride in 0.05 to 0.15 M concentrations at different temperatures for 15-60 min and then squeezed out, dried, and thermally stabilized. The fabric was then carefully washed to remove the chemically unbound salt. Three parallel treatments in the same conditions were conducted to obtain more reliable results.The hygroscopicity of the polyester fabric was determined gravimetrically according to GOST 381681 at 99% relative humidity. The results of the determination were used to plot the dependence of the hygroscopicity on the concentration of salt in the solution used for treating the material (Fig. 1).Rectangular strips of fabric measuring 50 × 300 mm were used as the samples for evaluating the capillarity. The sample tested was fixed and the lower end was lowered into a vessel filled with potassium bichromate. The liquid rise height (H, mm) along the sample for 60 min after the test began was used as the standard capillarity index.The data on the kinetics of the liquid rise in measuring the capillarity of polyester fabric show (Fig. 2) that the capillarity increased much more significantly than the hygroscopicity. Although the tin(IV) salt increased the hygroscopicity of the polyester fabric by 3 times (from 0.83 to 2.5%), the capillarity increased by more than 8 times after 60 min. This can be attributed to the fact that the dense structure of the fibres creates significant difficulties for internal diffusion of metal cations into the depths of the fibres, and the possibility of this is a function of the value of the positive charge of the cation and the number of molecules of water entering ...
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