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. 2021 Sep 6;13(17):3010.
doi: 10.3390/polym13173010.

Increased Comfort of Polyester Fabrics

Meritxell Martí  1 , Jaime Gisbert-Paya  2 , Mª Ángeles Bonet-Aracil  2 , Petar Jovančić  3 , Manuel J Lis  4 , Luisa Coderch  1
Affiliations

Increased Comfort of Polyester Fabrics

Meritxell Martí et al. Polymers (Basel). .

Abstract

The hydrophilicity of fibers is directly related to the comfort of a fabric and represents one of the most important aspects of a textile. Therefore, polyester (PES) modification has focused on an increase in moisture content and a subsequent improvement of the user's experience. Based on the glycerol hygroscopic properties, the main objective has been the enhancement of the hydrophilicity of polyester by glycerol treatments. Furthermore, microwave irradiation and alkaline treatment have been applied, in order to increase glycerol adhesion. Treated PES samples were characterized by performing moisture content, negative ion, water diffusion and water vapor resistance analyses. The effect of different treatment conditions such as bath ratio (1/10 or 1/15), temperature (40, 60 or 100 °C), time (2 or 5 min) and microwave radiation intensity (300 or 500 W) was evaluated. The moisture content of treated PES results indicated that by decreasing the bath ratio and increasing the time and temperature the moisture gain can reach almost 14%, which can be easily related to increases in the weight of the fiber. The treatment with alkali was done and led to the highest moisture increase. Treatment with 500 W microwave irradiation led to higher glycerol retention after rinsing. Different experimental conditions were applied to the glycerol-treated PES fabrics, and a clear improvement in moisture content was obtained increasing the comfort. The results were compared with the ones obtained for cotton and wool, where the moisture is higher than non treated PES.

Keywords: DVS; comfort; glycerol; moisture content; polyester; water vapor resistance.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
ATR-FTIR spectra of PES, GL, nontreated PES and GL-treated PES fibers (Table 3) before (a) and after rinsing (b).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Moisture content at 65% RH (a) and wicking (b) of PES, CO and WO and the GL-treated PES fibers and after rinsing.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Water absorption/desorption of PES, CO and WO (Table 1) and the GL-treated PES fibers (Table 4).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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