International Conference on Sustainable Built Environment

1. International Conference on Sustainable Built Environment NANCO AND UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE JOINT RESEARCH SESSION ON NANOTECHNOLOGY AND SUSTAINABLE BUILT ENVIRONMENT 13-14 December, 2010 at Earls Regency, Kandy, Sri Lanka

2. CLAY NANO PARTICLE EMBEDED NANO FIBERS FOR UV PROTECED CURTAINS TO BE USED IN SMART HOUSES WITH NANO TECHNOLOGY

3. Research overview MMT clay nano particles UV blocking property + Polymer solution Polymer composite (PAN/nano clay) Electro spinning Nano fiber composite UPF (ultra violet protection factor) Fiber strength

4. Montmorillonite clay nano particles • Montmorillonite clay nano particle – layered structure. Structure of Na- MMT MMT clay particle layered structure Paul D.R, Robeson L.M, Polymer nano technology:nano composite, Polymer 49 (2008) 3187–3204

5. Montmorillonite clay nano particles and its properties • Modified nano clay in to polypropylene create active dye sites. • can impart flame retardant property to the composite • Have the UV blocking capability • Light scattering of a material due to change in refractive index. • layered structure of a material change the material’s refractive index. • Incident light is only attenuated through light scattering. therefore no absorption will take place.

6. UV radiation of sunlight UV - C UV - B UV - A 315 – 400 nm 280– 315 nm 100 – 280 nm Least dangerous Human skin should be protected against Most dangerous but absorbed by atmosphere 3.10 – 3.94 ev 3.94 – 4.43 ev 4.43- 12.4 ev

7. Absorbency measurement of Na-MMT & SL nano clay Commercial UV absorber : absorbency 2.25 at 290 nm- 350 nm Na- MMT : 1 <absorbency <1.65 at 290 - 370 nm SL nano clay : 1 <absorbency <1.48 at 290 - 400 nm Absorbance behavior of MMT, SL Clay and commercial UV blocker

8. UV light source B A 0.0025M BTB/ 0.2g ZnO Analysis of UV blocking property of Na-MMT & SL nano clay

9. Annalysis of UV blocking property of Na-MMT & SL nano clay cont.. UV blocking behavior of Na-MMT and SL Clay in powder and liquid form

10. Embedding clay nano particles to nano fibers Preparation of polymer solution Electro spinning (solvent spinning) Nano fiber composite PAN: clay – 10:1 +DMF PAN +DMF 0kV power supply Nano fiber web collected using the electro spinning -15kV power supply

11. SEM images of PAN/Clay nano fiber composite PAN/ SL clay nano fiber PAN/ Na-MMT nano fiber PAN nano fiber

12. UPF (Ultraviolet protection factor) • Measures the Ultra Violet protection of the substrate • Can be performed by measuring the material’s diffuse transmittance in the ultraviolet (UV) spectrum. • For textile materials UPF depends on • Thickness and density of the fabric • Fabric construction • Dye and pigments presence in the textile, fiber, yarn • Chemical structure of the fiber

13. Comparison of mechanical properties of nano fiber composite Nano fiber tensile strength measure mechanism • Single fiber can be mounted on one end to an AFM cantilever tip using electron beam-induced deposition (that served as a force-sensing element) • Other end glued to the etched tip of a tungsten wire (using glue and optical microscope). • Tensile tests of the fiber can be conducted inside the SEM vacuum chamber • Applied force can be calculated from the observed deflection of the AFM cantilever E. Zussman, X. Chen et at, Carbon 43 (2005) 2175–2185

14. Conclusion • MMT layered nano materials has the UV blocking capability. • SL nano clay compared to Na-MMT has a good UV blocking capability. • Nano clay particles embedded nano fibers can be produced using electro spinning technology. • Electro spinning technology has low out put and should be further developed to make fiber composite at bulk level. • SL nano clay with layered structure can be successfully use to produce curtains with UV blocking property. • Future work should focus on following • Measure the absorbency of the nano fiber composite in the UV spectrum • Measure the UPF of the fiber composite • Measure the individual nano composite fiber strength