Investigating the effect of self-cleaning treatment on the air permeability, stain removal and water repellency properties of functionalized double jacquard woven upholstery fabrics

Abstract

Self-cleaning is the important and required function for the upholstery fabrics. At this research, which was not studied in the references, nano TiO2 coating was appliqued on 18 double faced woven fabrics produced with jacquard weaving technique with three different weft density, two different raw materials of warp yarns that are polyester and rayon, three different face weave pattern under the same conditions by using sol-gel method. All fabrics were stained with the same amount of coffee. Self-cleaning efficiency of the applied fabrics were tested at spectrophotometer by using K/S (Colour/Strength) values after waiting 6, 12 and 24 hours under artificial sunlight and stain removal ratios were calculated. The effects of the fibre type, weft setting and weave pattern on the air permeability of upholstery fabrics were investigated by variance analysis by means of Minitab 17.0. TiO2 application caused air permeability reduction of 18‒40% in polyester warp fabrics and 30‒47% in rayon warp fabrics. It was seen that self-cleaning property can be got at double faced polyester/cotton and rayon/cotton fabrics by using nano TiO2. After 24 hours sunlight exposure, the average stain removal rates were found as 74.8% for polyester warp fabrics and 66.7% for rayon warp fabrics. Also, it has been observed that TiO2 application imparts hydrophobic properties to all rayon and polyester warp fabrics.