Effect of SiO₂ Nanoparticles on Durability of Polyurethane-Coated Polyamide Tent Fabric

Abstract

In this paper, polyamide (PA) woven fabric was used as the base fabric, and polyurethane (PU) solution containing silica nanoparticles (PU@SiO₂ NPs) was used as the coating solution to prepare composite tent fabric (PA/PU@SiO₂).The morphology, structure, and durability of the tent fabric under ultraviolet (UV) radiation, waterstained, or thermal conditions were investigated.The results show that compared with PA/PU fabric without SiO₂ NPs, when the mass fraction of SiO₂ NPs in PU coating is 5%, the air permeability of PA/PU@SiO₂ fabric decreases from about 7.5 to 6.0 nm/s, while the reflectivity to UV-visible light is significantly improved.The surface wettability decreases, as indicated by the average water contact angle (WCA) on PA/PU@SiO₂ remaining stable at 47° after 9 min.After thermal treatment, the PA/PU@SiO₂ fabric shows superior mechanical stability.The degradation rate of the tensile strength is only 6.3%, approximately half that of the PA/PU fabric.Meanwhile, the elongation at break increases to 98.9%, compared to 61.8% for the PA/PU fabric.

Keywords

polyamide tent fabric / SiO₂ nanoparticle / polyurethane coating / durability

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