Sol-gel synthesis of organic-inorganic hybrid materials comprising SnO2, silica, and thiazole dyes on polyester fabrics for water repellent and warmth retaining finishing

In this work, an inorganic/organic hybrid material composed of tin dioxide, silica, and heteroaryl 2-aminothiazole was derived. Heteroaryl 2-aminothiazole, which acts as the coupling component, was synthesized based on a previously published method and coupled with p-nitroaniline, which is the diazonium component, to yield the heteroaryl thiazole azo dyes. Alternatively, tin dioxide/silica/thiazole dye hybrid materials were prepared by heating tetrahydrofuran solutions containing these thiazole dyes with various amounts of tin chloride and tetraethoxysilane to promote hydrolytic polycondensation via the sol-gel method. The structure of these hybrid tin dioxide/silica/thiazole dye materials was characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) analysis. The uniform dyeing of the polyester fabric revealed by the scanning electron microscope images confirmed the reaction of the hybrid materials with the polyester fabrics. The results of the characterization of the warmth retention, color strength, water repellency, and air permeability of the polyester fabric dyed with the tin dioxide/silica/thiazole dye hybrid materials indicated that the sol-gel hybrid-material finishing agents significantly improve the properties of polyester fabric.