Aroma Treatment of Wool Fabric with Microencapsulated Vetiver Essential Oil

Abstract:

The current ‘green’ trend is favoring usages of natural ingredients. There is increasing interest in the health and wellness benefits of herbal products as they offer a natural safeguard against the development of certain conditions and treatment for some diseases. Some essential oils can be used to infuse textiles with aroma with added biological properties that can also be useful for healthcare textile applications. To achieve the objectives of the study, vetiver essential oil microcapsules were prepared using complex coacervation technique and applied on wool fabric through pad-dry-cure method by optimizing various variables of aroma treatment. Aroma treatment was given to wool fabric using optimized concentrations of padding bath components i.e. 60 g/l microcapsule gel, 2 g/l softener and 10 g/l binder maintaining M:L ratio 1:20 for 30 minutes at 35oC treatment temperature as the fabric treated at these optimized conditions exhibited good wash durability and improved fabric properties. The 70oC drying temperature with 4 minutes drying time and 100oC curing temperature with 60 seconds curing duration were optimized on the basis of presence of higher number of microcapsules, retention of aroma for longer duration and improvement in fabric properties of treated fabric.