Quick dry ability of various quick drying polyester and wool fabrics assessed by a novel method

Modern consumers of textiles are conscious about sustainability of the garments they are wearing. Drying process is an energy-intensive process that has an impact on sustainability. There is no specific standard test method available to measure the dry ability of a fabric. Some of the test methods cited in the literature to measure the quick dry ability use a technique where a small quantity of water is placed on a dry fabric sample and the time taken for the water to evaporate is measured. These methods are not suitable for measuring the dry ability of a washed fabric as in these test methods the dry ability depends solely on the wicking property of that fabric. In the work presented here, we are proposing a new test method to measure the real dry ability of textile fabrics. When examined by this proposed method, it was found that some of the commercially available so-called quick-drying polyester fabrics showed poor dry ability. The surface of the examined fabrics was characterized by measuring contact angle and also by attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), which reveals the reasons behind their poor dry ability. This proposed method could be used in industry to measure the quick dry ability of various fabrics.