The Influence of Antimicrobial Treatment on Air Permeability and Water Absorption of Knits

Abstract

Antimicrobialfinishing is increasingly used for various purposes in textile products.Therefore, it is important to determine whether the antimicrobial finishchanging comfort properties (air permeability, water absorption, etc.) ofknits. The objective of this research was to establish the influence ofantimicrobial treatment conditions on air permeability and water absorptionproperties of plain plated knits. The investigations were carried out with threegroups of single plain plated knits. The ground and plating yarns of I group ofknits is pure fiber cotton, man-made bamboo, polyester. The ground yarns of IIand III groups of knits are accordingly polyamide and elastane threads. Theplating yarns in mentioned groups are the same as in I group – cotton, man-madebamboo, polyester yarns. Part of the knits of all groups were treated in anantimicrobial solution of iSys AG and organic-inorganic binder iSys MTX (CHT,Germany) as well as the other part of the knits were treated in the sameconditions as treated in antimicrobial solution, however, an antimicrobialmaterial and binder weren’t used.Itwas established that air permeability of investigated knits changedinsignificant regardless of whether reagents providing an antimicrobial effectwere used or not used in finishing process. This means that the chemicalsubstance used for antimicrobial finishing do not worsens an air permeabilityof knits. Meanwhile, the water absorption of antimicrobial treated knits wassignificantly lower than of blank treated knits because the organic-inorganicbinder, used in antimicrobial treatment, forms the sol-gel layer on the surfaceof fiber.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.21.1.5503