Wool Fabrics with Improved Performance and Comfort Characteristics Using Functional Polysiloxane

This work aims at studying the effect of treatment of wool fabric with different concentrations of water-dispersible amino siloxane polymer (AS) using exhaustion or pad-dry-cure techniques to impart durable silk-like softness with improved surface properties and comfortability. The effects of these modifications on the handle of wool as well as some of its chemical, physical, and mechanical properties were studied. The effect of treatment of wool fabric by AS on some of its comfort attributes; namely hydrophilicity and UPF was investigated. The change in the chemical composition of silicon-treated wool fabric was studied using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) display that wool fabric treated with AS exhibited better surface smoothness and significant coating of wool scales, compared with the untreated one. The thermal and physical properties of the treated fabrics were studied using TGA and XRD. Results of this investigation proved that wool fabric treated by AS using exhaustion technique exhibited better comfort characteristics without opposing effect on their inherent properties than those treated using the pad-dry-cure technique.