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.
In this study, it was investigated the coating of cotton fabric with huntite-hydromagnesite (HH) or ammonium polyphosphate (APP) solutions as anionic layer and chitosan solutions and nanosols as cationic layer by layer-by-layer (LBL) assembly to gain flame retardancy and antibacterial properties. Growth bilayer number, drying conditions and anionic layer type (HH or APP) affected the flame retardancy and antibacterial properties of coating with LBL assembly. 17% and 22% reduction in the peak heat release rate and 69% and 87% reduction in total smoke release and 26% and 14% reduction in mass loss rate were observed for fabric samples coated with AP solutions for 15 layers with drying after every dipping process (AP15DE) and fabric samples coated with HH solutions for 15 layers with drying after every dipping process, (H15DE) respectively. Thermogravimetric analysis revealed that the residual chars at 600 oC in air increased. The AP15DE exhibited the antibacterial activity against E. coli and S. aureus while H15DE displayed the antibacterial activity against only S. aureus.
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