Study of Weak-acidic Clothing Materials Developed for Skin Conditioning

The human skin is weak-acidic in a healthy condition, so that it is important keeping a slightly acidic skin to suppress the breeding of ill-function microorganisms on skin. In this study, we have applied newly developed weak-acidic PET fabrics for sportswear in order to examine the effect on the pH at skin surface and its consequent condition. Two types of weak-acidic PETs were prepared by chemical modification and subsequent processing, and the skin condition was compared by human subjects wearing the sportswear made of untreated and two weak-acidic PET fabrics. The weak-acidic PET fabrics were found effective to maintain the pH value lower at skin surface. Here the pH value was even lower after exercise than before exercise. The pH value at skin surface did not change before and after exercise in the case of untreated PET fabric. The results indicate that the pH of sweat is buffered by weak-acidic PET and the breeding of ill-function microorganism is suppressed. In fact the generation of foul smell due to the fermentation of sweat components is less detected.