Thermo- physical characterization of paraffin and beeswax on cotton fabric

Abstract

Cotton fabric (CF) has been widely used as a batik clothing material due to its suitable physical characteristics. Cotton woven fabrics were treated with droplets of different types of waxes including paraffin and beeswax. The physical and thermal properties of the waxes were characterized. This article presents an experimental study of the deposition of small droplets of molten waxes on CF surfaces. The method is based on an evaluation of the chemical functional groups of the waxes that were characterized by using fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The thermal properties of the waxes were analyzed by using a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). The viscosity of the molten waxes was measured with a viscometer. The spread of the molten waxes was determined in terms of the contact angles of the droplets on the CF surface. It was indicated that the contact angle of beeswax droplets on the CF surface is higher than that of paraffin. It should be noted that the contact angle correlates to the viscosity of the molten wax samples.

Keywords: Cotton fabric (CF);Paraffin; Beeswax; waxes.