Durable Moisture-wicking and Fast-dry Polyester Fabric Prepared by UV-induced Click Reaction

Polyester (PET) fabric is an important fabric to make sportswear due to its good mechanical strength, wear resistance and low cost, but poor hygroscopicity will accumulate moisture and excessive heat of human body which thereby causing thermo-physiological dicomfort. To obtain satisfying moisture-wicking, hydroscopic and fast-dry properties, facile and efficient single-sided click chemistry was used to substitute traditional methods. Firstly, PET fabric was alkali treated and modified with 3-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane to obtain thiol groups. Then it was gradiently grafted with potassium 3-sulfopropyl acrylate by thiol-ene click chemistry under single-sided ultraviolet (UV) irradiation to enlarge effects. The reaction was proved by FTIR and Ellman method, the surface morphology was observed by SEM, and the mass loss at different temperatures in thermalgravimetry (TG) test illustrated the quantity change of grafting. The results demonstrated that the resultant fabric has good performance of moisture absorbing and sweat releasing, fast drying as well as outstanding antistatic and soil release properties.