Effect Of Surface Modification On The Thermaland Moisture Behavior Of Wool Fabric

Surface modification is widely used in textile finishing because it can improve the function of fabrics. The comfort of fabrics must be changed due to the surface modification directly act on fiber and yarn surface. It has great significance to study the influence of surface modification on the fabric comfort for the application and development of surface modification textiles.In this study, as a typical physical and chemical modification, corona discharge, hydrogen peroxide and a combination of these two ways have been used to do surface modification on wool fabrics to investigate their effect on surface structure and properties, surface temperature and humidity and thermal and moisture performance of wool fabrics. The surface structure of wool fibers have been observed by SEM. Then, the wettability and static thermal and moisture resistance of wool fabrics have been analyzed after different treating methods. By using the self-made dynamic heat and moisture tester, the surface temperature and humidity of surface modified wool fabrics in simulated wind condition in dynamic moisture liberation process have been tested. For further simulation of the whole system which includes human, clothing and environment, a carbon fiber sheet has been used as a heat source for simulating human skin. In this system, the variation laws of fabric surface temperature and humidity have been studied after thermal compensation in dynamic moisture liberation process.The results show that after surface modification the scale layer of wool fabrics have been damaged in different degrees and the fiber surface roughness increases. Corona discharge treated one has minor effect and hydrogen peroxide treated one has the best effect. The wetting time for surface modified wool fabrics have been greatly improved and they require longer time to complete desorption process in the same wind velocity and moisture regain conditions. What’s more, the better wetting property fabrics need more time.The surface temperature of the fabric which covered on simulated skin decreases with increase of wind speed and the power consumption coefficient increases. Surface modified wool fabrics have lower surface temperature and power consumption coefficient than unmodified one. They also require longer time to complete desorption process.The thermal and moisture behavior of surface modification wool fabric in these study indicates that the results are concordant in both static and dynamic status. The improved wetting properties of wool fabrics have a large impediment of transferring heat and moisture which makes it has stronger buffering effect between human and environment in actual application. Fully understanding the impact of surface modification on the surface properties of textiles and heat and moisture transfer properties will benefit the development of comfort clothing and theoretical study on the comfort of fabric based on surface micro-climate.