_____________________________________________________________________________________________________ *Corresponding author: E-mail: mihmondal@gmail.com, mihmondal@yahoo.com; Current Journal of Applied Science and Technology 38(1): 1-12, 2019; Article no.CJAST.51879 ISSN: 2457-1024 (Past name: British Journal of Applied Science & Technology, Past ISSN: 2231-0843, NLM ID: 101664541) Vinyltrimethoxy Silane and Aminopropyl Triethoxysilane: Excellent Silane Coupling Agents for Cotton Fiber Functionalization Md. Khademul Islam 1 , Firoz Ahmed 1 , Md. Ahsan Habib 1 and Md. Ibrahim H. Mondal 1* 1 Polymer and Textile Research Lab, Department of Applied Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Rajshahi University, Rajshahi 6205, Bangladesh. Authors’ contributions This work was carried out in collaboration among all authors. All authors contributed equally, read and approved the final manuscript. Article Information DOI: 10.9734/CJAST/2019/v38i130346 Editor(s): (1) Dr. Tushar Ranjan, Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular Biology & Genetic Engineering, Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour, India. Reviewers: (1) Himanshu Dehra, India. (2) Yuan-Tsung Chen, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Taiwan. (3) J. Dario Aristizabal-Ochoa, National University of Colombia at Medellín, Colombia. (4) Shashidhar K. Kudari, CVR College of Engineering, India. Complete Peer review History: https://sdiarticle4.com/review-history/51879 Received 18 July 2019 Accepted 30 September 2019 Published 12 October 2019 ABSTRACT Vinyltrimethoxy silane and aminopropyl triethoxysilane were used for surface functionalization to enhance the textile performance of cotton. The process was carried out in an ethanol-water medium, which accelerated the cross-linking reaction between fiber and silane monomers. The process was optimized carefully as a function of fiber weight gain. The optimized modification conditions were silane monomer concentration 600 and 300% (on weight of fiber), ethanol-water ratio 60:40 and 80:20, pH 3.5 and 5, reaction time 90 and 60 min at room temperature (30°C), for VTMS and APTES, respectively. The silane-modified cotton fiber showed improved tensile strength, water repellency, thermal stability and wrinkle recovery. These improvements are due to flexibility of the Si-O bond and the fiber matrix interfacial strength properties. Instrumental analyses, such as FTIR, TGA, DTG, SEM and EDX, were carried out successfully. FTIR was used to identify the Si-O- Si group of VTMS and the Si-O-CH3 of APTES on modified cotton fibers, and TGA and DTG were Original Research Article