Multifunctional specialty finish on synthetic and its blends

Tag : Specialty Fabric

Introduction


The most important property of any apparel is comfort and handle.Due to the hydrophobicity and soiling properties of synthetic andits blends, it gives the wearer less comfort. Synthetic materialshave the ability to resist most bacteria, microbes and insects, asthe synthetic is not digestible. However, soiled synthetics cancultivate microbes because of the added source of food. This makesthe wearer even less comfortable. To overcome this, moisturemanagement, stain/ soil release and antimicrobial treatment onsynthetic and its blends are necessary. Therefore multifunctionalfinishes using specialty chemicals are needed.


Moisture Management


Moisture management often refers to the transport of both moisture vapour and liquid away from the body. Moisture management can be definedas 'The controlled movement of water vapour and liquid water (perspiration) from the surface of the skin to theatmosphere through the fabric'. When a synthetic material issubjected to this moisture management treatment, it developsimproved hydrophilicity followed by very fast drying behaviour. Incase of synthetic blends subjected to this treatment, their dryingrate becomes much faster. In the case of natural fibres it is thereverse - very good absorbency and slow drying rate. The dryingrate of polyester is four times greater than cotton. P/C blendssubjected to moisture management treatment will have increasedabsorbency. The polyester will dry more quickly than cotton andwhile it dries it keeps on absorbing from cotton and quickens thedrying process. Wicking, wetting and drying rate are test methodsthrough which we can find out moisture management efficiency.


Soil/ Stain Release


When a textile substrate is made repellent in nature, it is able torepel only the liquid stains or soils. But, dry stains like grease,paint, grass stain, etc, leave their mark on the textile. These aredifficult to remove from a surface made repellent in nature. Hence,the need for soil/ stain release finishes. Like the name implies, asoil release finish keeps dirt from binding to the substrate fibreand allows it to be more easily removed through vacuuming,laundering and other cleaning methods. Soil release finishes tendto come in either fluorochemical or silicone type varieties.Fluorochemical treatments protect against both water and oil-basedsoils and resist wetting by oily and watery liquids. Siliconetreatments protect against water-based soils and watery liquidsonly.


Soil release chemicals help in easy laundering by releasing waterand oil-based stains. Today, stain release finish for cotton fabricapparel is mostly imparted by the incorporation of low surfaceenergy fluorochemicals. Stain release fluorochemical finishes allowoil and water stains to penetrate the fabric. However, when thefabric is laundered, the stains are easily removed. Fluorochemicalshave the unique property to provide fabrics with a low surfaceenergy film with both high oil and water repellency properties toresist penetration of oil and water-based stains (polar and nonpolar liquids). The 'repellent' products prevent the textilesubstrate from wetting and soiling by repelling the soilingsubstances and the adhesion of dry soil. Fluorochemical hybridfinishes, also called 'dual effect', and containing hydrophilicgroups, have also been developed and improved successfully overrecent years to impart both stain repellency and stain releaseproperties.


The concept of soil release finish comes into play here.Originally, the soil release finish imparts hydrophilic propertiesto the substrate and lowers its static charges. The result is thatthe oil and water-based stains do stick, and penetrate but are veryeasily washed off in normal home laundering. Synthetic fibres suchas polyester have more hydrophobic properties which limit theirscope of usage. If such fibres are imparted with more hydrophilicproperties, especially water/ perspiration absorbency withwash-fast resistance, their use will further broaden. Superiorhydrophilic properties (water/ perspiration absorbency) will allowvarieties of fibre materials, knits, wovens and industrialmaterials a broader scope of use.