Barbara Simončič was a Guest Professor at The Swedish School of Textiles, University of Boras, Sweden, giving 20 hours of lecture on the topic of the sol-gel technology for chemical modification of textile fibres for students on Master degree in Textile technology from 21th to 25th February 2011. The lecture included the introduction of the theoretical approach of sol-gel process, chemical structures of novel precursors and their application to textile fibres to obtain different functional properties as well as analytical methods for determination of quality parameters of the coating.
B.05 Guest lecturer at an institute/university
COBISS.SI-ID: 2557552At the international scientific conference, a comparison between the antimicrobial efficiency of covalently and physically bonded silver into the silica matrix present on cellulose fibres was presented. For covalent bonding of silver, cotton fabric was coated by a 2 % mercapto silane precursor to create a silica matrix with functional thiol groups, followed by treatment of the samples by AgNO3 solution. For physical bonding, commercial (iSys AG, Germany) AgCl dispersed in a reactive organic-inorganic binder (iSys MTX (CHT, Germany) was used as a finish. The chemical and morphological properties of the coatings were investigated using FT-IR, SEM and EDXS. To determine the antibacterial activity of Ag in the two coatings, the reduction of Escherichia coli bacteria was determined according to the AATCC 100-1999 standard method. The results showed that the strength of the binding of the silver into the silica matrix directly influences its antimicrobial efficiency. While chemically bonded silver acts biostatically, with a bacterial reduction of 66%, the physically bonded silver is a very effective biocide, giving 100% reduction of the tested bacteria.
B.03 Paper at an international scientific conference
COBISS.SI-ID: 2577264At the 7th Nanotechnological Day, organised by the Chamber of Craft and Small Business of Slovenia, some examples of technologically important biomimetic textiles prepared by mimicry the forms and processes from nature were presented. A special attention was devoted to the lotus effect. The properties of the leaf surface which enable a self-cleaning effect of the lotus were described. The possibilities of the preparation of the textiles with the lotus effect in the chemical finishing processes with the use of the sol-gel technology were presented. The advantages of the sol-gel finishing against the conventional finishing were exposed. Examples of the cotton woven fabrics with lotus effect developed within the basic project were introduced.
F.18 Transfer of new know-how to direct users (seminars, fora, conferences)
COBISS.SI-ID: 2536304