Evaluation of modified knitwear properties
2019
Bake, I., Riga Technical Univ. (Latvia) | Afanasjeva, V., Riga Technical Univ. (Latvia) | Kukle, S., Riga Technical Univ. (Latvia)
Textile functionality can be complimented using nano-scale coatings, integrating electro conductive yarns, sensors and electronic systems. Therefore, integration of electroconductive materials in products needs a special care, because they are easily damaged by hydrothermal treatments. As concluded in the previous studies, the sol gel technique is effective for the modification of textiles. The focus of this study is to modify pure cotton yarns before the complicated electroconductive systems are integrated into knitwear. The modification of textile materials with silica-based sol and zinc acetate dihydrate as the modifier can provide new properties, such as self-cleaning, antibacterial and UV – protection simultaneously improving particular mechanical properties like tensile strength and resistance to abrasion. However, it is important that the modification does not negatively affect the wear comfort properties of the final product. Therefore, air and water vapour permeability had to be tested as a significant indicator of wear comfort. The final samples are produced by blending modified or unmodified cotton yarns (75 wt %) with polyamide (21 wt %) and elastane (5 wt %) and knitting a plainwovenknitwear. For that four hanks of cotton yarns were modified in a silica-based sol, with 7.5 wt % zinc acetate dihydrate integrated as a modifier; following an after-treatment consolidation for 5 minutes at 120 ºC. As the nanoscale coating merges with the modified surface, the linear density of the fabric increases, resulting in the decrease of air permeability. So, in that case, the average air permeability of the samples containing modified yarn decreases by 20 %, comparing to the ones with unmodified. A slight decrease (3 %) was observed for water vapour permeability. Such decrease is considered as not critical to significantly affect the comfort properties. Wear resistance tests of the obtained knitwear, using a non-oriented (randomly across the surface) friction testing method, show significant surface defects for the unmodified samples after 5•103 friction cycles, whereas for the modified samples – after 1 .5•104 to 2• 104 friction cycles.
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