The Effect of Coupling Agent on the Self-cleaning Ability of Nanowire Zinc Oxide-poly(butylene terephthalate) Fibers

Abstract—The aim of this research was to study the effect of the coupling agents, HI-LUBETM and LicowaxTMOP on, rheology properties, thermal properties, mechanical properties and self-cleaning properties of PBT-nanowire ZnO composite fibers. Variation of the nanowire ZnO contents in the PBT composite fibers resulted in self-cleaning properties of the fibers. With increase in the amount of nanowire ZnO in PBT composite fibers, the self-cleaning properties of the PBT composite fibers gradually increased. The ZnO/PBT composite fibers in presents of ZnO 5wt% showed the best results of self-cleaning less than 30 hours of the sunlight which the similar results were found less than 54 hours of 20 watts of UV radiation. Both coupling agents were not affected the self-cleaning properties of the fiber. The Melt Flow Index of the LicowaxTMOP-series sample (L-series) slightly higher than HI-LUBETM-series sample (E-series) due to the lubricant additive agent increasing the process ability. SEM micrographs showed the fracture surface of the nanowire ZnO composite fibers at different ratios. The mechanical properties of the ZnO/PBT composite fibers results provide further evident to proof that this composite fibers was able to make textile products. Moreover, the HI-LUBETM additive was presented the well mixing between nanowire-ZnO and PBT due to HI-LUBETM is a coupling agent and lubricant while LicowaxTMOP is a lubricant.

Index Terms—Nanocomposite, coupling agent, nanowire-zinc oxide, poly(butylene terephthalate), self-cleaning.

Siripan Metanawin and Napatson Soonthonpinit are with the Department of Textile Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi, PathumThani, 12110, Thailand (e-mail: siripan.m@en.rmutt.ac.th, luk_nuying@hotmail.com).
Tanapak Metanawin is with the Department of Materials and Production Technology Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, King Mongkut's University of Technology North Bangkok, Bangkok, 10800, Thailand (e-mail: tanapak.m@eng.kmutnb.ac.th).

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Cite: Siripan Metanawin, Napatson Soonthonpinit, and Tanapak Metanawin, "The Effect of Coupling Agent on the Self-cleaning Ability of Nanowire Zinc Oxide-poly(butylene terephthalate) Fibers," International Journal of Materials, Mechanics and Manufacturing vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 6-10, 2017.