Quantitative Fragrance Durability Evaluation Depending on Keeping Condition of Knitted Fabric Treated by Microcapsules Containing Star Anise Essential Oil

Fabric treated by fragrance was one of textile applications. The evaluation of fragrance durability of fabric treated by the fragrance was always the subject of many researches, though quantitatively determining fragrance intensity was difficult and there will not always be agreement on odor characteristics by different testers. In this paper, we built a simple and quantitative method to evaluate the fragrance intensity, which could be considered as the remained oil quantity on fabric treated by microcapsule loaded with star anise essential oil. The evaluation was based on the combination of the expert method and diluted solution method. This method was used to evaluate the influence of the knitted fabric’s keeping conditions on fragrance duration of the fabric. Two groups of single jersey fabric have been prepared: one was knitted from the Ne 40/1 Chief Value Cotton (CVC) yarn (60% cotton and 40% polyester). The second group was also single jersey fabric knitted from the Ne 46/1 100% cotton. The knitted fabrics were treated with microcapsules containing star anise essential oil and then have been kept in ambient conditions (temperature was about 25 oC ±2, relative humidity was 75% ±2) and in the cold dried condition (temperature was about 2 oC, relative humidity was 20%). The results showed that the developing method in the research can be used to effectively quantitatively evaluate the fragrance intensity of fabric treated by fragrance. The fabrics treated by microcapsules containing star anise oil essential remained their fragrance longer than 7 days in the cool dried condition while which ones in the ambient condition finished their fragrance after 5 days.