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Nanotechnology provides the ability to engineer the properties of materials. Nano zinc oxide having particle size ∼50 nm was used with different concentrations to coat the following textiles fabrics: cotton, polyester and blend cotton/ polyester (65/35) using the pad-dry-cure method. The main advantages of these treated samples were their light weight, increasing surface area per unit volume with increasing treatment concentration. The treated samples were characterized through the following measurements: wide angle X-ray diffraction, mechanical tests (tensile strength and elongation percentage) and thermal properties, i.e. diffraction scanning calorimeter. The results indicated that the behavior of the change in crystal parameters for treated cotton samples greatly differed as compared for polyester. The highest intensity and d-spacing in case of treated cotton were observed at zinc oxide concentration 0.25% followed by a decrease. The polyester samples showed gradual increase in intensity by increasing the zinc oxide concentration, while the hybrid structure blend samples followed the mixture behavior rule. The order of improvement in crystalline parameters for the three treated samples was cotton > blend > polyester. Also, the order of improvement in mechanical properties was cotton > polyester > blend; these results may be due to the uniform distribution of ZnO nano-particles on the fabric surface thus the elasticity of the coated fabric increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Museums contain a high number of historical textiles were made from silk dyed fabric that decorated with metallic threads. Pulsed laser radiation was used in order to remove dirt, corrosion and small particles from a substrate in different historical objects such as textiles. this study presents the experimental results on laser irradiation of silk dyed with natural dyes using ultrafast laser radiation (pulse duration <100 fs) with different pulse energies, in order to evaluate and to better understand the effect of laser interaction on historical textiles. Silk fabric has been prepared and dyed with natural dyes to be similar to the Egyptian Historical textiles. The resulting surface morphology was studied by using SEM and optical microscopy. In addition, color parameters (CIE Lab) and chemical properties of irradiated samples were studied for silk dyed with safflower or cochineal dyes, and alum, CuSO4 or ferric citrate mordants. Furthermore, determination of samples thickness and degree of crystallinity were performed before and after laser irradiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]