Tailoring double‐layered fibrous mat of modified polypropylene/cotton fabric for the function of directional moisture transport

Abstract

AbstractIt has been widely acknowledged that the moisture (sweat) management in the textile is a crucial performance to adjust human comfort. Herein, a double‐layered fibrous mat of modified polypropylene (PP)/cotton fabric for the function of directional moisture transport was reported. The PP fibers were deposited on the surface of cotton fabric via melt‐electrospinning to form as‐prepared fibrous mat, wherein the PP mat was used as the inner layer and the cotton fabric acted as the outer layer. The as‐prepared fibrous mats were modified by means of plasma treatment and grafting hydrophilic groups for the sake of converting natural hydrophobicity of PP fibers into moderate wettability. After these treatments, sweat can be transport from the inner layer to the out layer rather than accumulating on the surface of the PP layer, while the capillary action of the cotton fabric on sweat was further enhanced. The directional moisture transport was systematically characterized by a moisture management tester and the experimental results exhibited remarkable accumulative one‐way transport index (1,103.1%), outstanding overall moisture management capacity (0.91) within 120 s and high water vapor transport rate (11.3 kg d−1 m−2). Besides, the obtained fibrous mat also provided decent wearability, showing the great application prospects in the moisture (sweat) management of textiles.