Indian Journal of Fibre & Textile Research
Vol. 35, March 2010, pp. 68-71
Effect of silicone nano-emulsion softener on
physical properties of cotton fabric
D P Chattopadhyaya & D D Vyasb
Department of Textile Chemistry, Faculty of Technology &
Engineering, The M S University of Baroda,
Vadodara 390 001, India
Received 15 April 2009; revised received and accepted 8 July 2009
The effect of silicone nano-emulsion softener against silicone
conventional emulsion softener on the physical properties of
cotton fabric has been studied. It is observed that the
nano-emulsion softener improves the feel, softness and crease
recovery to a higher extent compared to the conventional
emulsion softener. However, the nano form of emulsion causes
higher loss in strength with increased elongation-at-break. The
water absorbency of nano-emulsion treated fabric is found to be
poorer than that of the conventional emulsion.
Keywords: Bending length, Cotton, Conventional emulsion,
Crease recovery angle, Nano emulsion, Silicone
In textile industry, cotton is widely used because of its
superior properties. Cotton and cotton blended fabrics
are subjected to various chemical treatments during
their processing. Finishing, the final step of chemical
processing, is carried out to improve the properties,
attractiveness and serviceability of textile materials.
The treatment of textiles with substances that modify
their surface properties has been a common practice
since most ancient times. Softening of textiles
becomes an important finishing process of many
after-treatment processes in a textile chemical
processing industry. The hand of a fabric is a
subjective sensation felt by the skin when a textile
fabric is touched with the finger tips and gently
compressed. The perceived softness of a textile is the
combination of several measurable physical
phenomena, such as elasticity, compressibility and
smoothness.
Silicone finishes are widely recognized as the best
materials for increasing the softness of fabrics,
enhancing their aesthetic feel and imparting an
——————
a
To whom all the correspondence should be addressed.
E-mail: dpchat6@gmail.com
b
Present address: R. C. Technical Institute, Sola,
Ahmedabad 380 060.
excellent hand1. Silicones have been responsible for
giving super softness to fabrics over the years, and the
quest to produce the optimum handle for apparel
fabrics with suitable comfort properties has presented
an interesting challenge. Silicones and their
modifications, such as dimethyl silicone, methyl
hydrogen silicone, amino silicone, polyether modified
silicone, epoxy, carboxyl and amide, give varying
softness with different comfort properties. Amino
silicones are known to impart extremely soft handle.
At present amino-functional silicon elastomers are the
most efficient softeners in the field of textile
finishing. During the application, generally done in
acidic conditions, these amino groups are quaternized
to cationic species which have a stronger attraction
for the negatively charged fabric. This is particularly
true for cotton-based fabrics, which develps a
negatively charged surface in aqueous bath. This
improves deposition, performance and durability of
the softener coating. These polysiloxane softeners are
best delivered to the textile surface in the form of an
emulsion.
Nanotechnology has stirred all the branches of
technology and textile is no exception2,3. The
silicone emulsions are also manufactured in nano
form. There is sufficient information available on the
effect of conventional silicone emulsion application
on the properties of textile fibres4-7. But very little
information on the effect of silicone nano emulsion on
the properties of cotton fabric has been found in the
literature.
The present work was, therefore, aimed
at investigating the performance of silicone
nano emulsion against silicone conventional emulsion
on various properties of cotton fabrics like softness,
feel, wrinkle recovery, absorbency, soiling and tensile
properties.
Desized, scoured and bleached cotton fabric with
the following specifications was used: weave, plain;
areal density, 120 g/m2, ends/inch, 142; and
picks/inch, 40. Amino polysiloxane silicone softener
was collected in two forms, viz nano-emulsion and
conventional emulsion softeners. Acetic acid was
used for adjusting the pH of the finish bath. Carbon
powder was used as artificial soil8,9. Both the forms of
the emulsions were applied from a pad bath
 SHORT COMMUNICATION
containing silicone softener at a pH 5. The
concentrations of conventional and nano–emulsion
softness were 20 g/L and 10 g/L respectively. The
padded fabric was dried and cured at 150°C
for 3 min.
The bending length, a measure of fabric softness,
was measured as per IS: 6490-171(cantilever test)
using Sasmira stiffness tester. Crease recovery angle
of the control and treated samples was measured
using Shirley crease recovery tester as detailed in IS:
4681-1968. Breaking load of fabric samples was
measured before and after treatment as per IS:
1969-1968 using Instron tensile tester (Model 1122)
with a traverse speed of 100mm/min. The per cent
loss in breaking load was also calculated for each
treatment. For the assessment of absorbency of the
samples, a drop of water was put on the fabric surface
and the time taken by the water droplet to get
absorbed by the fabric was noted. After the
application of both the silicone emulsions, the feel of
the fabric samples was assessed by a panel of
examiners and given a grade for the same. The
yellowness developed on the samples during the
curing step of the softener application was measured
in terms of yellowness index (ASTM D1925).
Artificial soiling of the finished samples was
performed by tumbling them in launderometer along
with carbon powder and little grease. There are
various techniques available for the evaluation of
soiling of textiles. Soiling leads to loss in whiteness or
brightness of textile materials. One of the methods,
therefore, is to assess the optical effect. Soiling causes
a reduction in the total reflectance of the textiles,
which, in turn, drops the whiteness index, as the later
is related to the reflection. The extent of soiling was,
therefore, evaluated by the change in whiteness
measured in terms of whiteness index.
Effect on Bending Length and Crease Recovery
The conventional silicone emulsion and its nano
form were applied to the well prepared cotton fabric
samples by pad-dry-cure technique. Table 1 shows the
results of such application on the bending length and
crease recovery angle of these samples. It is observed
that the application of softener reduces the bending
length and improves the crease recovery angle of the
samples. Silicone emulsion acts as a lubricating agent
between the fibres in the yarn and between the yarns
of the fabric, imparting softness to the material. This
softness causes a reduction in bending length of
69
fabric. The bending length and rigidity of the textile
material are directly related to each other. The drop in
bending length is thus indicative of reduced rigidity or
improved softness of the fabric samples. Silicone’s
softening capability comes from the siloxane
backbone’s flexibility and its freedom of rotation
along the Si-O bonds. Low bond energy and low bond
rotational energy contribute to a high degree of
rotation of Si-O-Si back bone. This freedom of
rotation leads to a unique flexibility of siloxane
molecules10,11. The improvement in softness due to
silicone softener application is also reflected by the
enhancement of crease recovery angle. Thus, both the
softeners could reduce the bending lengths and
improves the crease recovery angles, but the effect is
found to be more pronounced in the nano form.
Cotton fibre is made of fibrillar structure. The droplet
size of nano emulsion is so small that it can penetrate
the micro and nano structures very well compared to
the droplets of macro emulsions. Thus, silicone nano
emulsions have unique penetrability inside the fabric
and fibre structure which results in the improvement
in both bending length and crease recovery.
Effect on Tensile Properties
The effect of conventional and nano silicone
emulsions on tensile properties is also presented in
Table 1. It is observed that the application of softeners
results in a loss in breaking load with increased
elongation-at-break. The silicone emulsion, as
discussed earlier, reduces the friction between the
fibres in a yarn and between the yarns within the
fabric which results in more slippage of these entities,
which, in turn, causes reduction in load bearing
capacity with increased elongation on load. The
reduction in breaking load with the rise in elongation
due to application of silicone softener on cotton
Table 1 —Effect of conventional and nano emulsion of silicone
on some physical properties of fabric
Sample Bending Crease recovery Loss in Increase in
length angle breaking elongation
cm (warp + weft) load %
deg %
Control 4.9 135 - -
Treated with 4.7 144 8.7 10.7
silicone
conventional
emulsion
4.4 155 15.7 18.5
Treated with
silicone nano
emulsion
70 INDIAN J. FIBRE TEXT. RES., MARCH 2010

textiles was also observed by Cheng et al.12.
Nano emulsion, because of its better penetrability and
higher surface area coverage, has exaggerated the
effect which is manifested in the results.
Effect of Curing Time on Yellowing
One limitation with the aminofunctional silicone is
that the amino group which is responsible for many
unique properties also results in a propensity to
yellowing, particularly during curing or drying. The
likelihood of yellowing increases with increasing
amino content. Therefore, for examining the effect of
curing time on yellowing of silicone emulsion treated
fabric, both the forms of silicone emulsions were
applied to the cotton fabric samples by padding
technique and after drying these samples were
subjected to curing for 3, 6 and 9 min at 150°C
(Table 2). It is evident from the results that an
increase in curing time at constant temperature
increases the yellowing of the treated samples for
both the forms of the softeners. But interestingly the
increase in time of curing shows a much milder effect
in case of nano silicone emulsion applied fabrics, so
far as yellowness is concerned.
Effect of Soiling on Finished Fabric
After the application of artificial soil, the fabric
samples were shaken for a few minutes to remove the
loosely mounted soils from the fabric surface. Then
the assessment of the extent of soiling was measured
in terms of change in whiteness of the samples.
Table 3 shows the effect of soiling on the finished
samples. The whiteness of the samples treated with
fabric by the nano emulsion, which left little space to
accommodate soil particles during subsequent soiling
treatment.
Effect on Absorbency and Feel
In addition to soft feeling, silicone finishing in
general imparts water repellent property to the
textiles. Such water repellency property is provided
by methyl groups which are oriented and attached to
the fibre surface by silicone links. The absorbency of
different samples was, therefore, determined by
putting a drop of water on the surface of the sample.
The time taken by the water droplet to get absorbed
by the fabric was noted. Lesser time taken by the
water droplet to get absorbed by the fabric indicates
better absorbency. Table 4 shows the effect of silicone
nano emulsion softener against silicone conventional
emulsion softener on the absorbency of the samples. It
is evident from the results that the nano form of the
emulsion makes the fabric more water repellent
compared to its conventional counterpart.
The objective evaluation of the hand feel of the
fabric after application of both the forms of emulsion
was done by a panel of examiners and given an
arbitary grade (Table 4) for the same. Nano-emulsion
softener covers each fibre and reduces the friction
between them which subsequently increases their
mobility that results in better softness.
The effect of silicone nano emulsion on the
properties of cotton fabric was studied and compared
with the conventional silicone emulsion. Application of
both the forms of emulsion causes reduction in the
[

silicone nano-emulsion softener is found to be higher Table 3 — Effect of soiling on finished fabric
as compared to the samples treated with conventional Sample Whiteness index (Hunter lab)
emulsion. Thus, the sample treated with silicone nano Before After
emulsion softener shows higher soil resistance soiling soiling
compared to its conventional counterpart and exhibits Treated with silicone 45.50 33.46
better whiteness properties. conventional emulsion (26.4)
Improved soil resistance of nano-emulsion finished Treated with silicone 49.72 43.39
fabric may be attributed to the better coverage of the nano emulsion (12.7)
Values in parentheses indicate % decrease in whiteness due
[

Table 2 — Effect of curing time on yellowing of cotton fabric

to soiling.
[

Sample Yellowness index Table 4 — Effect of silicone softeners on absorbency and feel of
3 min 6 min 9min treated fabrics
Treated with silicone 10.50 12.50 13.43 Sample Time, s Feel (grade)
conventional emulsion (19.0) (27.9)
Treated with silicone 9.79 10.38 11.13 Control 3 1
nano emulsion (6.0) (13.7) Treated with silicone 5 3
3,6 and 9 min are curing time. conventional emulsion
Values in parentheses indicate % increase in yellowness Treated with silicone 7 5
compared to the previous sample. nano emulsion
 SHORT COMMUNICATION
bending length and improvement in the recovery
angle after creasing. However, the extent of the effect
is found to be more with nano emulsion. It is found that
the nano form leads to more loss in load bearing
capacity of the treated samples. The effect of curing
time on the development of yellowing on the nano
treated samples is found to be comparatively lesser.
The objective evaluation of the feel of the
fabric shows a better performance of the
nano silicone emulsion.
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