THE EFFECT OF SEQUENTIAL WASHINGS ON MORPHOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF COTTON FABRIC SURFACE PROTRUSION

Eryna Nasir; Suzaini  Abdul Ghani; Zolkapli  Eshak; Noor Najmi  Bonnia

Eryna Nasir Faculty of Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia.
Suzaini Abdul Ghani Faculty of Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia.
Zolkapli Eshak Faculty of Pharmacy, Level 11, FF1 Building, Puncak Alam Campus, 42300 Bandar Puncak Alam, Selangor, Malaysia.
Noor Najmi Bonnia Faculty of Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia.

Keywords: Textile washing, protrusion, microfibre release

Abstract

Repeated washings on the textiles has abraded the material surface which contributed to the release of
the microfibres into the wastewater. The evaluation on fabric surface is important because the protrusion formed acts as the intermediate state before microfibre release could happen and natural fibres such as cotton have a significant contribution towards such situation. Hence, the main aim of this study is to investigate the protrusion of woven cotton fabric through microscopic image observation with Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), which was then analysed with imageJ software. The relationship between the cotton fabric protrusion properties with the number of washing cycle intervals were explored. A sample of 100 % cotton woven fabric has been washed for 25 times with a lab-scale washer, and the protrusion length, void space and protrusion coverage image were investigated for every five washings interval. It was found that the length of the fabric protrusion increased within the 25 washing cycles by total up to 30 %, the void space reduced by 2.31 % whilst the protrusion coverage increased by 3.09 % after the sequential washes which showed that there was an effect on the fabric protrusion due to the washing activities. A thorough study on the fabric protrusion of cotton fabric
would provide a clear understanding on one of the root causes of the microfibre release issue and be the
reference or the starting point in the creation of an anti-microfibre-release finish based on the fabric protrusion
characteristic.