• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.35 no.10
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• pp.1242-1251
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• 2011

This study investigates the effect of mixed characteristics of oily soil such as mixed ratio, polarity of oily soil on contact angle of fabric, removal of oily and particulate soil from PET fabric in oily/particulate soil mixed system. The contact angle of fabric in the surfactant solution with suspended oily soil was examined as a fundamental environment of detergency of soil from fabrics. Detergency was investigated as function of mixed ratios of oily/ particulate soil, type of oily soil, surfactants concentration, surfactant type and temperature of detergency in surfactant solution. The contact angle of fabric in surfactant solution sharply increased with mixing nonpolar oily soil; in addition, the contact angle slightly increased with increasing contents of oily soil and decreased with increasing surfactant concentration. The removal of oily and particulate soil from fabric was higher in the solution mixed with polar versus nonpolar oily soil. The detergency increased with increasing surfactant concentration and the increased temperature of surfactants solution that were relatively improved in NPE compared to DBS solutions, The results indicated that the detergency of oily and particulate soil showed a similar trend in oily/ particulate mixed soil systems. The general contact angle of fabric was well related with the detergency of oily and particulate soil in oily/particulate mixed soil system, therefore, the primary factor determining the detergency of soil in oily/particulate mixed soil system may be the contact angle of fabric caused by wettability.