Water transport along keratin fibers as measured by an electrical capacitance technique.

研制了一种新的实验装置，用于研究由少量纺织纤维组成的纤维束中的水分传输行为。为了检测沿光纤传输的少量水分，我们采用了电容技术，并构建了一种装置，该装置包括专门设计的电放大电路和放置在样品光纤之间的电容电极。对尼龙、涤纶(PET)和人造丝纤维的水分传输行为进行了评估，发现当水分沿纺织纤维发生传输时，存在一个最小(临界)数量的构成纤维(CNF)，这取决于纤维的类型。尼龙、涤纶和人造丝的CNF值分别为10、10和2。根据纤维的表面润湿性对这些结果进行了讨论。对于角蛋白(人发)纤维也进行了类似的实验，发现未经处理的原始纤维即使在纤维数大于10的情况下也没有观察到水的传输。另一方面，表面改性的头发纤维经过DCCA试剂氯化或用砂纸物理摩擦处理后，观察到了水的传输。这些结果是基于毛发纤维表面性质的变化来讨论的；即，毛发纤维的疏水性。通过改性，使处女发的表面变得亲水性。

A new experimental apparatus has been developed for studying water transport behavior along fiber bundles which consist of a few textile fibers. In order to detect the small amount of water which travels along fibers, we used an electrical capacitance technique and constructed an apparatus which contains specially designed electric amplifier circuit and condenser electrodes between which sample fibers are set. Water transport behavior was evaluated for nylon, polyester (PET), and rayon fibers and it was found that there exists a minimum (critical) number of constituting fibers (CNF) when water transport occurs along textile fibers, depending on the type of fiber. These CNF values were 10, 10, and 2 for nylon, PET and rayon, respectively. These results were discussed on the basis of the surface wetness of the fibers. Similar experiments were also carried out for keratin (human hair) fibers, and it was found that water transport was not observed for untreated virgin fibers, even when the number of fibers was greater than 10. On the other hand, water transport was observed in the case of surface-modified hair fibers, which had been treated by chlorination with DCCA reagent or by physical rubbing with sandpaper. These results were discussed on the basis of changes in surface properties of hair fibers ; namely, the hydrophobic nature of. the surface of virgin hair had been changed into a hydrophilic one by the modification.