Thermo-physiological Comfort Properties of Polyester and Polyester/Acrylic blended Synthetic Fabrics treated with Herbal Finishes

Abstract

Thermo-physiological comfort in clothing mainly lies in moisture management, which often refers to the transport of both moisture vapor and liquid away from the body. Moisture management of fabrics is chiefly influenced by the thermal properties of those fabrics. In spite of the convincing properties that synthetic fabrics have, they are not much preferred because of their hydrophobic nature which provides less comfort to the wearer compared to the natural fabrics like cotton, wool, and silk. Previous studies report that the herbal finishes, which are eco-friendly in nature, improve the anti-microbial and other medicinal properties but very little or no work has been carried out on the comfort aspect of these fabrics. This work reports a study of the influence of two ecofriendly herbal finishes, Neem and Bermuda grass, on the thermo-physiological comfort properties of synthetic fabrics used in clothing. The herbal finishes were applied on to 100% Polyester and 50/50 Polyester/Acrylic blended fabrics. Prior to the application of finishes, the fabrics were given a pretreatment to achieve a better penetration and durability of the finishes. The finished fabrics were tested for the thermo-physiological comfort properties of Wicking, Water vapor permeability, and Thermal conductivity and the results were analyzed. It was revealed that both the Neem and Bermuda grass natural finishes considerably improved the moisture related properties and moderately reduced the thermal conductivity characteristics of the above synthetic fabrics. Durability to washing was also tested and discussed.