Liquid Transfer Fabric

About

Technology While many fabrics have attempted to balance removing moisture from the skin with preventing external moisture and environmental influences from penetrating the fabric, none have achieved a complete unidirectional liquid transfer. Inspired by naturally occurring water absorbing and repelling systems, Cornell scientists have created a truly unidirectional liquid transport fabric. This novel functional fabric draws moisture and liquid from the wearer’s skin to the outside of the fabric, and prevents any water or environmental hazards from penetrating through to the wearer. The multi-layer fabric utilizes hydrophilic yarns with micro-channels that absorb moisture on the skin side of the fabric, conducts it through to the outer layer and release the droplets on the outer surface of the fabric. The unidirectional liquid transport occurs because the pulling hydrophilic force of the micro-channels is greater than the pushing force of the hydrophobic outer layer. In addition, the openings of the micro-channels close when any substance attempts to flow in the opposite direction, i.e. from the outside layer toward the skin. Therefore, once the water is pulled through to the outer layer, the hydrophobic outer layer prevents any liquid from penetrating the fabric and liquid droplets simply roll off the fabric. The fabric is capable of repelling external environmental substances from toxic liquids to rainwater. The inventors created the fabric using commercial textile materials and production is compatible with existing large scale manufacturing in the textile industry.