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The presented study reports on differently modified silica sols for coating applications on leather. Silica sols are prepared by acidic hydrolysis of tetraethoxysilane and modified by silane compounds with fluorinated and non-fluorinated alkyl groups. In contrast to many earlier investigations regarding sol-gel applications on leather, no acrylic resin is used together with the silica sols when applying on leather. The modified silica particles are supposed to aggregate after application, forming thus a modified silica coating on the leather substrate. Scanning electron microscopy investigation shows that the applied silica coatings do not fill up or close the pores of the leather substrate. However, even if the pores of the leather are not sealed by this sol-gel coating, an improvement of the water repellent and oil repellent properties of the leather substrates are observed. These improved properties of leather by application of modified silica sols can provide the opportunity to develop sol-gel products for leather materials present in daily life [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Silver nanoparticles embedded in SiO2 particles of micrometer size are prepared using spray drying. The spray drying is performed with a SiO2 sol (solvent water:ethanol 4 : 1) containing SiO2 and silver particles of nanometer size. During spray drying the SiO2 nanoparticles aggregate to SiO2 microspheres whereas the silver particles exhibit only a small tendency of aggregation and keep their nanometer size. However under special conditions also the formation of crystalline silver rods is observed. The antibacterial activity of the resulting Ag/SiO2 powders is determined against the bacteria Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis. Because of this antibacterial acitivity and the fact that the powder of SiO2 microspheres exhibits a good dispersibility, such materials have an immense potential to be used as antimicrobial additive in processes like master batch or fiber production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microwave assisted synthesis is a well established method in organic and inorganic chemistry. It is also used in material science to realize novel carbon nanoparticles exhibiting fluorescence properties. The results presented here are related to a microwave driven solvothermal process used for the conversion of amino acid and 1,2-diaminoethane into fluorescent solutions. Arginine, lysine and glycine were used as amino acids. The process temperatures are set in the range of 80° to 140 °C and the maximum process pressure is 4.5 bar. The process duration is set from 5 to 30 minutes. The fluorescence effect is increased with increasing temperature. The prepared aqueous fluorescent solutions can be used as media to induce fluorescence in textile substrates. The current study can be understood as a first proof-of-concept of a very simple microwave-assisted solvothermal synthesis of fluorescent compounds useful for the modification of different substrates.

Silver nanoparticles embedded in SiO2 particles of micrometer size are prepared using spray drying. The spray drying is performed with a SiO2 sol (solvent water:ethanol 4: 1) containing SiO2 and silver particles of nanometer size. During spray drying the SiO2 nanoparticles aggregate to SiO2 microspheres whereas the silver particles exhibit only a small tendency of aggregation and keep their nanometer size. However under special conditions also the formation of crystalline silver rods is observed. The antibacterial activity of the resulting Ag/SiO2 powders is determined against the bacteria Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis. Because of this antibacterial acitivity and the fact that the powder of SiO2 microspheres exhibits a good dispersibility, such materials have an immense potential to be used as antimicrobial additive in processes like master batch or fiber production.