Tailoring cotton fabric with wettability gradient and anisotropic penetration of liquid by spray coating

Comfort has been one of the most important features of clothing, particularly for sportswear, which requires an effective transport of heat and moisture from the inner to the outer side of clothing. We herein report the use of a simple technique of spray coating and commercially available water repellents for a one-sided hydrophobic and self-initiated one-way water transport cotton fabric. The highlight of this work is the simplicity of the process and choice of chemicals that can be adopted easily by any textile finishing industry. On this fabric, water was able to diffuse and penetrate the fabric structure in one direction from the hydrophobic to the hydrophilic side but was unable to go the opposite direction. The directional transport improved with smaller droplets and lower add-on achievable by higher air pressure and longer distance of spray coating. From moisture management tests, the best result was obtained with the spray coating of Phobol NB-NH at an air pressure of 3.0?kgf/cm(2) and a distance of 120?cm. Phobol NB-NH gave better result of transport and overall comfort properties than Phobotex RSY.