Continuous Homogeneous Thin Liquid Film on a Single Cross-Shaped Profiled Fiber with High Off-Circularity: Toward Quick-Drying Fabrics

Abstract

Quick-drying fabrics, renowned for their rapid sweat evaporation, have witnessed various applications in strenuous exercise. Profiled fiber textiles exhibit enhanced quick-drying performance, which is attributed to the excellent wicking effect within fibrous bundles, facilitating the rapid transport of sweat. However, the evaporation process is not solely influenced by macroscopic liquid transport but also by microscopic liquid spreading on the fibers where periodic liquid knots induced by spontaneous fluidic instability significantly reduce the evaporation area. Here, a cross-shaped profiled fiber with high off-circularity, featured as multiple concavities along the fibrous longitude-axis, which enables the formation of a homogeneous thin liquid film on a single fiber without any periodic liquid knots, is developed. The high off-circularity cross-sections help overcoming Plateau–Rayleigh instability by tuning the Laplace pressure difference, further facilitated by capillary flow along the concave surface. The homogeneous thin liquid film on a single fiber is responsible for maximizing the evaporation area, resulting in excellent overall evaporation capacity. Consequently, fabrics made from such fibers exhibit rapid evaporation behavior, with evaporation rates ≈50% higher than those of cylindrical fabrics. It is envisioned that profiled fibers may provide inspiration for the manipulating homogeneous liquid films for applications in fluid coatings and functional textiles.