Development of Cotton fabric with Unidirectional Moisture Transport Property

A cotton garment is preferred in normal use due to cotton’s moisture absorbing properties and comfort. But this absorbed moisture is not transported away from skin for spreading and evaporation to outer layer of fabric making garment wet and causing fabric cling. The garment-skin microclimate has a large moisture gradient when wearer moves between environments with difference in relative humidity which causes a chilling feeling and negatively affecting thermophysiological comfort of wearer. The objective of this work is to improve sensible perspiration transport property of cotton fabric by developing a knitted structure having different wetting properties on inner (skin side) and outer face of fabric This was achieved by applying water repellent finish at the yarn stage to ultimately modify the wetting behaviour of single jersey and plated single jersey cotton knits to enhance liquid moisture transport properties.