PROPER SELECTION OF TEXTILES BASED ON ELECTROSTATIC CHARGE GENERATED FROM THEIR CONTACT-SEPARATION AND SLIDING ON WOOL FIBERS

Generation of electrostatic charge (ESC) of textiles due to their contact and friction with other textiles controls the quality and comfort of clothes. In the present work, the ESC generated from the contact-separation and sliding of cotton and polyester (PET) strings blended by carbon fibers on wool fibers is measured. The experiments revealed that ESC generated on the surface of cotton/PET from the contact-separation with wool showed relatively higher negative values that increased with increasing PET content. While, the positive sign of ESC generated on the wool surface remarkably increased with increasing PET content. It was observed that ESC generated on the surface of wool from the sliding on cotton/PET displayed remarkable increase of positive values that may be attributed to the ranking of the cotton, PET and wool in the triboelectric series. It can be concluded that addition of carbon fibers (CF) drastically decreased ESC and consequently the proposed strings will be environmentally safe materials. The drastic decrease of ESC compared to that observed in strings free of CF is attributed to the easy charge transfer offered by CF.