The influence of chemical reaction conditions upon poly(styrene‐methyl methacrylate‐acrylic acid) synthesis: Variations in nanoparticle size, colour and deposition methods

Abstract

Monodisperse latex nanospheres of poly(styrene‐methyl methacrylate‐acrylic acid) with different sizes were synthetised by soap‐free emulsion copolymerisation and applied onto polyamide 6,6 fabrics by two methods, ie, gravitational sedimentation and dip‐drawing. Different‐sized nanospheres were synthetised by varying temperature and stirring velocity as reaction parameters. Scanning electron microscopy and scanning transmission electron microscopy were used to evaluate nanosphere sizes and deposition structures. The results showed two different nanosphere structural arrangements on the fabric surface, a hexagonal packed centre structure in the even surfaces and a square arrangement in the out‐of‐plane surfaces. Different colours were observed according to particle size, namely, violet (ca. 170 nm), blue (ca. 190 nm), green (ca. 210 nm), yellow (ca. 230 nm) and red (ca. 250 nm). An iridescence effect was also observed, displaying different colours at different observation angles. By controlling the size of the nanospheres it was possible to obtain different, brilliant and iridescent colours. Using different nanosphere sizes it was possible to obtain different interplanar distances and to control the light scattering in the crystalline lattice planes, obtaining Bragg diffraction patterns.

Iridescence Mimicking in Fabrics: A Ultraviolet/Visible Spectroscopy Study

“…Polyester and cotton dyeing (with black dye) were carried out in an Ibelus C-720 (Pregitzer&Ca, LDA, Guimarães, Portugal) dyeing machine equipped with infrared heating. P(St-MMA-AA) microspheres were previously synthetized accordingly [18] and used for the PC coating without any purification.…”

“…After cooling to 50 • C, cotton fabric was rinsed in cold water to remove hydrolyzed dye from the fabric's surface, washed at 100 • C for 20 min with detergent Diadavin UN (Tanatex Chemicals, Santo Tirso, Portugal) 1 g/L to remove the remaining hydrolyzed dye in the fabric's interior, rinsed again with cold water and then dried in an oven at 40 dyeing (with black dye) were carried out in an Ibelus C-720 (Pregitzer&Ca, LDA, Guimarães, Portugal) dyeing machine equipped with infrared heating. P(St-MMA-AA) microspheres were previously synthetized accordingly [18] and used for the PC coating without any purification.…”

“…PCs can be applied in ink-jet printing [7,8], 3D printing [9,10], lithography [11,12] and sensors [13,14], among others [15,16], to produce structural colors. They can also be applied in textiles, an area of research that had demonstrated great interest in the last decade [6,[17][18][19][20]. Being one of the most pollutant industries in the world, there is a constant demand that the textile industry searches for more ecological methods of coloration, using less chemicals and water.…”

Recent advances in environmentally friendly structural colored fabrics

“…68 Fernandes et al applied gravitational sedimentation to assemble P(St-MMA-AA) spheres on polyamide 6,6 fabrics and endowed them with structural colors. 69 Although gravitational sedimentation is a convenient dyeing method with low-cost, it usually takes a long time due to the small sizes of spheres, which usually have diameters of 100-200 nm. The modified methods based on gravitational sedimentation method, such as thermal-assisted gravity deposition and interface-gravity joint selfassembly, can shorten the dyeing time to a certain extent.…”

ICONTEX and ICONWOOLF 2019 Special Issue

“…The second of these papers, by Rui Fernandes et al, explores the structural coloration of textiles by using monodisperse latex nanospheres . In this context, poly(styrene‐co‐methyl methacrylate‐co‐acrylic acid) nanospheres of different sizes are synthesised by soap‐free emulsion copolymerisation and applied onto polyamide 6,6 fabrics by gravitational sedimentation and dip‐drawing techniques.…”