An investigation on the thermal and solar properties of graphene-coated polyester fabrics

Abstract

In this study, coatings were made with graphene nanopowder in two different thicknesses (0.1 and 0.5 mm) at three different concentrations (50, 100 and 150 g/kg) on polyester woven fabrics. The effects of the coating thickness and graphene concentration were examined with optical and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images. The thermal stability properties of the samples were also evaluated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). Thermal conductivity was evaluated with two different principles: contact and radiant heat transfer, according to JIS R 2618 and EN ISO 6942, respectively. Solar measurements were performed with a Shimadzu UV-3600 Plus spectrophotometer. The graphene coating improved the thermal stability of the polyester fabrics. The solar absorbance value increased by 80% compared to reference fabrics, and reached approximately 90%. One of the important results was that the thermal conductivity coefficient increased by 87% and 262% for the two coating thicknesses, respectively.