Effect of silica nanoparticles and BTCA on physical properties of cotton fabrics

Silica nanoparticles were synthesised from rice hulls and characterised. They were amorphous in nature, 50-100 nm in size. The concentration of silica nanoparticles, pH and curing time were taken as independent variables to design the experiment. The Box-Behnken method was used to derive the experimental plan and fifteen experiments were conducted. Regression equations were formed with the dependent and independent variables and the results of all possible combinations derived. The combination of optimised concentration of BTCA (1,2,3,4-butanetetracarboxylic acid) and SHP were used as crosslinking agent and catalyst respectively, and silica nanoparticles were used to enhance the physical properties of the cotton fabric. The effect of pH and curing time on the physical properties were analysed by FTIR. The best combination of process parameters were identified by ranking. It was observed that higher concentration of silica nanoparticles with BTCA improved the crease recovery angle and tensile strength. FTIR revealed that the increase of pH and curing time increased the ester carbonyl band intensity ratio.