Hydrophilic And Water Transmissible Properties Of Bamboo Fiber And Its Assemblies

Bamboo fiber is a kind of plant fibers recently developed. Researches on the hydrophilic andwater transmissible properties will play important role in use of bamboo and bamboo fiber. Theresearches will be made from bamboo single fiber, fiber bundles to its assemblies.At first, the contact angle and surface energy of the bamboo single fiber have been tested inthis paper, in order to understand the hydrophilic characteristic of bamboo fiber. Compared withsome often used textile fibers, the contact angle of bamboo single fiber is the smallest. But it hasno significant difference with the results of flax and jute fiber. Differences between thehydrophilic fibers in contact angle are small. Bamboo fiber possess a higher surface energy and asmaller contact angle, therefore, it is highly hydrophilic.Secondly, after that, the hydrophilic and water transmissible properties of bamboo fiber havebeen systematically studied in three levels——the bamboo single fiber, fiber bundles and fiberassemblies. Results show that the contact angle values become smaller and smaller in theprogress of single fiber to fiber assemblies and single fiber to fiber bundles to fiber-bundleassemblies, and the differences between the fibers in contact angle is become bigger and bigger.This indicated that the structural factor magnified the differences in use of the fibers. Althoughbamboo fiber have properties of small contact angle, fast infiltration, well moisture conductionability, high moisture regain and high water retention rate, it still has a fast dry speed. This maybe related to the small fineness of bamboo single fiber.Finally, in order to learn the role of structure factors in the hydrophilic and water transmissibleproperties, the effects have been explored from the structure factors of bamboo fiber assemblies,such as fibers’ length and arrangement, assemblies’ aggregate thickness, composition and surfaceroughness, etc,. Results show that it is beneficial to the moisture wetting and/or transmission offiber assemblies when assemblies have the longer fiber, the thinner collection, smooth surfaceand connective structure on the condition of the other factors unchanged. In fiber combinations, the combination form of unhydrophilic material top layer and hydrophilic bottom layer benefitsthe moisture transferring. When combining of two types of hydrophilic fibers, the mixed(blended) combinative form of two types of hydrophilic fibers with different hydrophilicitiesplays a synergistic effect.