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Smart Breathable Fabric

Department of Textile Technology, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110 016, India

Manjeet Jassal

Department of Textile Technology, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110 016, India, manjeetjassal{at}hotmail.com

Ashwini K. Agrawal

Department of Textile Technology, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110 016, India, ashwini_agrawal{at}yahoo.com

Smart breathable cotton fabrics were made using a temperature-sensitive copolymer - poly(N-tert-butylacrylamide-ran-acrylamide:: 27: 73). The cotton fabric was coated using an aqueous solution (20 wt%) of the copolymer containing 1,2,3,4-butanetetracarboxylic acid as a cross-linker (50 mol%) and sodium hypophosphite (0.5 wt%) as a catalyst, followed by drying (120°C, 5 min) and curing (200°C, 5 min). The integrity of the cross-linked coatings to the fabric was observed to be excellent. The coatings after integration to the cotton substrate retained temperature-sensitive swelling behavior and showed a transition in the temperature range of 15-40°C. Below 15°C, the coatings swell by 800% while above 40°C they deswell to a swelling percentage of less than 50% (on the basis of dry weight). The transition to swelling was completed in about 20 min while deswelling was quicker in 2-3 min. The response was found to be reversible and stable to repeated cycles of transition. The coated fabrics showed a temperature-responsive water vapor transmission rate (WVTR). The WVTR values of the responsive (copolymer coated) and the nonresponsive (poly(acrylamide) coated) breathable fabric were measured as a percentage (transmission percentage) of control uncoated substrate. The transmission percentage at 20% relative humidity for the copolymer coated fabrics was found to change across the transition temperature (15-45°C) from 58 to 94% compared to the poly(acrylamide)-coated fabrics which changed only from 70 to 94%, showing a clear response to changing environmental temperature.

Key Words: smart textile • stimuli-sensitive polymer • water vapor transmission • breathable coating • poly(acrylamide)

Journal of Industrial Textiles, Vol. 34, No. 3, 139-155 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/1528083705047905


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