Low-stress mechanical properties of sericin-coated polyester fabric for sportswear application

Polyester fabric has been treated with sericin using different methods to improve the comfort of sportswear. Five different coating methods have been investigated, namely polyester fabric treated with alkali, alkali and sericin, sericin with DMDHEU and glutaraldehyde mixture, plasma followed by sericin and glutaraldehyde, and plasma followed by sericin and DMDHEU. The low-stress mechanical properties of the samples have been investigated. Sericin-treated fabric samples show higher tensile resilience, shear rigidity, shear hysteresis, bending and bending hysteresis, compressional energy and compressional resilience and lower extensibility, surface friction and surface roughness. The hand values of all the samples have improved, and the raw fabric treated with plasma, sericin, and DMDHEU has produced the highest overall hand value of the samples.