A study of carboxylic acids and nano-TiO2 effects on stress relaxation of cotton fabrics

This study presents an evaluation on stress relaxation of cotton fabrics before and after performing the finishing process. The process includes a series of treatments on fabric samples through the Pad-dry curing method. A group of organic acids along with a proportion of catalyst and co-catalyst mixture constituted the treatment agents. Stress relaxation behavior of untreated and treated samples was assessed along two different directions of weft and warp using stress relaxation tester. In addition, an Italian Mesdan tensile tester was applied to measure physical and mechanical properties such as elongation, strength, Poisson’s ratio, and shear modulus. In the mean time scanning electron microscopy was applied to consider surface of samples before and after treatments. The results prove that the stress relaxation of treated samples has shown reasonably acceptable values when compared with those obtained for untreated one. Furthermore, the curve fitting of Maxwell’s model over the experimental data also justified that an interlaced model is more appropriate for explaining the stress relaxation in cotton fabrics. Beside the result of stress relaxation, Poisson’s ratio, and shear modulus illustrated remarkable increments. On the other hand, a reverse trend was observed for tensile properties in both directions. Orthotropic feature evaluation of fabrics toward both the direction of warp and weft also infers different response of stress relaxation in each direction.