| AVS 63rd International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Advanced Surface Engineering | Wednesday Sessions |
| Session SE+TR-WeM |
| Session: | Protective Coatings for Tribological Applications in Surface Engineering |
| Presenter: | Robert Franz, Montanuniversität Leoben, Austria |
| Authors: | M. Rebelo de Figueiredo, Montanuniversität Leoben, Austria I. Carvalho, Universidade do Minho, Portugal S. Carvalho, Universidade do Minho, Portugal C. Gaidau, Leather and Footwear Research Institute, Romania R. Franz, Montanuniversität Leoben, Austria |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Ecologic and health effects of applying materials with advanced functions for leather surface finishing contribute to increasing the added value and durability of leather and fur articles. The innovative properties of Ag/TiO2 nanoparticles on leather surface are due to their antimicrobial, self-cleaning and flame retardant characteristics. Furthermore, it leads to a reduction of chemicals with high pollutant potential, e.g. volatile organic biocides, organic solvents and halogenated flame retardants typically used during leather manufacturing.
The efficient anchoring of Ag/TiO2 nanoparticles on leather surface ensures minimum risk of human skin penetration. To this aim, two different technologies for the functionalisation of the leather surfaces were explored: (1) physical mixing of Ag/TiO2 nanoparticles with film forming polymers and leather surface covering by conventional technologies and (2) leather surface activation by cold plasma pre-treatment and magnetron sputter deposition of transparent Ag/TiO2 nanoparticle layers.
In order to test the adhesion of the deposited Ag/TiO2 nanoparticles to the leather substrates, a series of tribological tests in ball-on-disc configuration has been performed using different counterpart materials ranging from rubber (e.g. nitrile rubber) to polymers (e.g. PTFE, PUR or POM). The analysis of the coating wear by light optical and scanning electron microscopy as well as Raman spectroscopy revealed details regarding the adhesion of the Ag/TiO2 nanoparticles depending on the deposition method and parameters applied. In a similar way, the sticking behaviour of the Ag/TiO2 nanoparticles to the different counterpart materials was analysed to emulate the uptake of the released nanoparticles by the human skin. The conducted experiments represent a first step towards a systematic study of the mechanical performance of leathers treated with nanoparticles in order to evaluate their suitability for future applications in the footwear industry.