Addition effect of nanoparticles on the mechanical properties of coated fabric

In this paper, nanocomposites are synthesized with Tunisian natural clay which has the advantage of being cheap. In fact, it is simply a mixture of several sorts of clays (kaolinite, dolomite, calcite, illite, and quartz). This clay has been cleaned, purified, dried, and steered with different resins which are actually used in the textile field for several applications such as comfort, elasticity, or impermeability. First, the different mixtures of resin/clay were deposited with different clay percentages on a PET/cotton fabric sheet. Then samples were examined by SEM in order to see their compositions and ensure the formation of nanocomposites. Finally, different mechanical tests such as tensile, breakout, abrasion, and tear tests were performed. Furthermore, it appears that the mechanical performance of fabric is globally increased versus the amount of clay for all resins except the polyvinylacetate, which shows a decrease in the fabric tear resistance when using more than 20% clay. It has also been noticed that mechanical characteristics of the coated fabric without clay decrease significantly in comparison with the reference, but become better when clay is added to the resin. Consequently, it is obvious that the type of resin is important because the results shown are different from one resin to another.