Directional Water Transport in Fabrics by Varying Yarn Coordination and Texture Design

• Published in: Fibers and polymers Vol. 24; no. 2; pp. 759 - 769
• Main Authors: Li, Yaping, Fan, Jie, Zhang, Shengyu, Xia, Zhaopeng, Wang, Liang, Liu, Yong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Seoul The Korean Fiber Society 01-02-2023; Springer Nature B.V; 한국섬유공학회
• Subjects: Asymmetric structures; Capillary pressure; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Coordination; Fineness; Grooves; Hydrostatic pressure; Osmosis; Polymer Sciences; Regular Article; Textiles; Texture; Thermal management; Warp yarns; Water management; Water transfer; Weft; Wettability; Wetting; Woven fabrics; Yarn; 섬유공학; Directional water transport; Yarn coordination; Fabric texture design
• ISSN: 1229-9197; 1875-0052
• DOI: 10.1007/s12221-023-00092-0

Directional water transport fabric plays a pivotal role in personal thermal management. However, it has remained a great challenge to reach the target only by texture design and yarn coordination. Here, we reported a trilayered woven fabric (TWF) with directional water transport performance by combining a hierarchical microporous structure and asymmetric wettability. The TWF is composed of interweaved plain weave layer (PWL), basket weave layer (BWL) and float layer (FL), which provides the continuous water transfer paths by the continuous warp yarns that move back and forth in the thickness direction of the fabric. The asymmetric structure of the TWF endows the fabric with excellent directional water management property, which can be tailored by the fineness and the wetting state of weft yarn in the three layers, and the groove structure on the surface of the PWL. The resulting TWF exhibited a high directional water transport index R (435%). The mechanism for the directional water transport of the BWF was investigated by analyzing the capillary force, hydrostatic pressure and hydrophobic force. Moreover, the universality of the fabric design approach was verified by two kinds of bilayered woven fabrics (BWFs) which have an analogous texture to the TWF. Therefore, the reported method for designing directional water transport fabric threw light on developing eco-friendly water management textiles with good durability for demanding situations.