- Title
- The effect of laundering on the physical and thermal properties of phase change textile materials
- Creator
- Scheepers, Ricardo
- Subject
- Gqeberha (South Africa)
- Subject
- Eastern Cape (South Africa)
- Subject
- Textile chemistry
- Date Issued
- 2021-04
- Date
- 2021-04
- Type
- Master's theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10948/52038
- Identifier
- vital:43443
- Description
- Phase change materials (PCMs) have been incorporated into clothing and textiles to provide added value in terms of thermoregulation and thus added comfort to the wearer in extreme weather conditions and sporting activities. Since clothing is laundered many times during the service life of the textile, the effects of simulated domestic laundering on the physical and thermal properties of a non-woven textile which contains PCMs were investigated. The thermal properties, such as the thermal degradation, melting, evaporation and crystallisation were measured by the TGA and DSC analytical techniques. The physical properties, such as the microcapsule size distribution, and the microcapsule morphologies of the PCM microcapsules, were measured by the SEM and Raman analytical techniques. The main objectives of this study were to determine the effect of repeated laundering at different wash temperatures on the mass loss, enthalpy, and physical changes in PCM. Thermal degradation as determined by TGA thermograms was found to be higher at a wash temperature of 60°C relative to that of a wash temperature at 30°C, the mass loss being 4.6% more at 60°C than at 30°C. This was asserted to physical changes such as size and shape of the PCM microcapsules as evident in SEM images. The SEM images showed broken and collapsed PCM microcapsules in the web and around the fibre, indicating evaporation of the thermoregulating content of the PCM. It was found that the heat capacity of the sample washed at 60°C was much lower than that of the unwashed sample, the difference being approximately 50% in terms of the latent heat capacity as determined by DSC thermograms. This implies that the latent heat effectiveness of the PCM has decreased significantly. The physical properties of the PCM such as the intermolecular interaction, the intensity and width of peaks, polarisation, degree of crystallinity and the orientation changed as illustrated in the Raman analysis.
- Description
- Thesis (MSc) -- Faculty of Science, School of Biomolecular and Chemical Sciences, 2021
- Format
- computer
- Format
- online resource
- Format
- application/pdf
- Format
- 1 online resource (xv, 64 pages)
- Format
- Publisher
- Nelson Mandela University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Science
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Nelson Mandela University
- Rights
- All Rights Reserved
- Rights
- Open Access
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