Study on the relationship between structure and moisturizing performance of seamless knitted fabrics of protein fibers for autumn and winter

Abstract With dry weather and low humidity in autumn and winter, human skin is usually prone to dryness, even leading to itchy skin and other problems, so it is important to do a good job of skin moisturizing. The fabrics produced by using protein fiber have a certain moisturizing effect on human skin. Five types of yarn including collagen fiber, cheese protein fiber, silkworm pupa protein fiber, cashmere protein fiber, and viscose are chosen as veil materials, while nylon/spandex composite fiber is chosen as inner yarn material. Three fabric structures including the weft plain stitch, 1 + 1 mock rib, and 1 + 3 mock rib are selected for the study. Based on the full factorial experimental design method, 15 samples of seamless knitted fabrics are produced using a circular knitting machine. In order to investigate the effects of different veil materials and fabric structure of seamless knitted fabric on skin moisturizing performance, the skin moisture content test and the trans-epidermal water loss test were carried out before and after the fabric samples were wrapped around the skin of 20 participants. The results show that both the veil materials and the fabric structure have significant effects on the skin moisture content. The use of collagen yarn as the veil material and 1 + 1 mock rib as the fabric structure results in better moisturizing effects on human skin. In terms of the trans-epidermal water loss test, the fabric structure has significant effects on the results, while the veil material has no significant effect on it. However, the value of trans-epidermal water loss of the fabric with protein yarn is smaller than that of the fabric with ordinary viscose. Therefore, using cheese protein yarn as the veil material and 1 + 1 mock rib as the fabric structure results in a smaller trans-epidermal water loss value.