In Fig. 5a the easy removal of soil by water droplets is demonstrated
for silk covered by a siloxane + 2% w/w SiO2 coating. In
Fig. 5b, the removal of waxy soil is investigated. A small amount
of wax was poured and dried on untreated silk and silk treated
with siloxane + 2% w/w SiO2. As shown in Fig. 5b, the wax is easily
removed mechanically from the treated sample without leaving any residual wax on the textile surface. However, a stain is left on
the surface of the untreated silk upon wax removal.