Improved Thermal Stability of PET Fabrics by Photografting of Methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane(MAPTMS)

Methacryloxypropyl trimethoxysilane (MAPTMS), a hybrid organic-inorganic monomer, was photografted onto PET fabric using benzophenone (BP) as a photoinitiator. It was found that a UV energy of 43.2J/ was required to optimally photograft the MAPTMS onto PET fabrics which was applied with an aqueous formulation of 10% MAPTMS, 20% BP and 0.5% N-Methyldiethanol amine (MDEA). The MDEA additive was efficient in reducing atmospheric oxygen inhibition of polymer radicals which eliminated compulsory nitrogen inerting. The surface grafting of PET fabrics was verified by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and scanning electron spectroscopy (SEM). The grafted PET fabrics with the hybrid monomer showed higher thermal stability due to the introduced silane component in the monomer as ascertained by higher char content at 800, which increased to 14.5% for the 15.8% grafting compared to 8.2% for the untreated.