Investigation on decontamination mechanism of moisture‐wicking fabrics during home laundry

Abstract Moisture‐wicking clothes are widely consumed in various leisure or sports activities due to their function of moisture absorption and perspiration, which can provide consumers with a good comfortable experience. In this investigation, the stain removal performance of moisture‐wicking fabric was investigated, especially the influence of surfactants and hydrophilic finishing agents on its decontamination ability. The results show that moisture‐wicking fabric has better decontamination performance than ordinary polyester fabric. The binding force between stains and fibers is calculated by density functional theory (DFT). Compared with ordinary polyester fabric, the binding energy between moisture‐wicking fabric and sebum is lower, resulting in stain is more easily to be removed during washing. Different surfactants have a great influence on the decontamination of fabrics, among which the nonionic surfactants with longer carbon chains have the best decontamination performance. Moreover, after finishing with hydrophilic silicone agent, the hydrophilicity of the fabric is significantly improved, and its decontamination performance is also improved. However, this hydrophilic silicone agent will be gradually removed in the subsequent washing process, especially after the first washing, the removal rate reached 75.70%. Therefore, hydrophilic silicone agent can be supplemented in detergent formulation to improve the stain removal performance of moisture‐wicking cloths during home laundry.