The effect of TiO2 nanoparticles on surface temperature of coated cotton fabrics

Heat build-up of textile fabrics due to solar radiation and the resulting temperature increase is highly undesirable especially in hot and sunny summers. Accordingly, this work was carried out in order to investigate the possibility of applying Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles as NIR reflective pigment on cotton fabric with the purpose of surface temperature reduction when the fabric is irradiated with solar light. In order to do that, dyed cotton fabrics were coated with TiO2 nanpigments with various diameters and various concentrations. At the next step, the spectral reflectance of coated fabrics was measured using spectroscopy in the ultraviolet (UV), visible (VIS) and near-infrared (NIR) regions. After that, the temperatures of the coated fabrics and typical blank samples were measured using heat box, based on ASTM D 4803 – 97 standard test method. Obtained results revealed that, the higher the TiO2 diameter and concentration, the lower the reflectance is in UV region and the higher the reflectance is in VIS and NIR regions. In addition, applying the TiO2 coating on cotton fabric will resulted in decrease of surface temperature with a minimum difference with blank sample of 1.87 for TiO2 concentration equal to 0.5wt.% and diameter equal to 35nm, and maximum of 4.47 °C for those of 3.0wt.% and 240nm.