Triboelectrification of Polymeric Textiles

The present work investigates the possibility of having minimum electric static charge generated from the friction between the proposed polymeric composites consisting of polytetrafluoroethylene, (PTFE) and polyamide, (PA) fibres when sliding against cotton textiles. The idea depends on the fact that PTFE gains negative electric static charge when sliding against all the other materials, while PA gains positive charge. The control of the content of the materials of the proposed composites is thought to control the value and signal of the generated electric static charge. Experiments were carried out to measure the electric static charge and friction coefficient under varying load. Based on the fact that, PTFE gaines negative charge and PA gaines positive charge, the resultant voltage would depend on the combination of both PTFE and PA. This observation confirmed that the intensity of electric static charge depended on the load. Further increase in PA content gave positive voltage. It was observed that, fibre diameter of PA had critical effect on the generated voltage. Voltage generated at sliding was higher than that recorded for contact and and separation. Knowing that in application, contact and separation is accompanied by sliding. Therefore, it can be suggested to use mean values to determine the proper PA content at which zero voltage can be obtained. It is proposed to make further experiments to determine the effect of the fibre diameter of both PA and PTFE on the generated voltage. Besides, microfibres as will as nanofibres should be tested. Comfort of textiles is considered as main factor in their specification and evaluation as clothes. The measure of the comfort is the friction coefficient displayed by the sliding against skins or other textiles. As the friction coefficient increased the comfort of the clothes decreased. Friction coefficient drastically decreased with increasing the load and PA content. The lowest friction values were observed at 100 wt. % PA content. It seems that friction coefficient critically depended on the value of the generated voltage. This behaviour can be explained on the basis that, generation of equal electric static charges on the sliding surfaces of different signs would increase the attractive force between the two surfaces and consequently the adhesion increased leading to friction increase.