Mosquito Repellent Finish

On Textiles

By: V. Krishnaveni

Mosquito Repellent Finish On Textiles

By: V. Krishnaveni
Abstract
N-N Diethyl Benz amide Mosquito repellent finish was applied on cotton fabrics using by simple padding
method. The Mosquito repellent N-N Diethyl Benz amide treated cotton fabrics were evaluated by Cage
Test. The 12% N-N Diethyl Benz amide applied fabric gave 100 % mosquito repellency.
Introduction
In Today's era of modernization of the textile industry, we are going through advancements of technology in
every field of this industry. The world where this would lead us would be astonishingly hi-tech and
materialistic. To ensure our security and safety from the future hazards, we need to equally development the
technology for our protection. Protective textiles are among one such smart application of smart technology
in textiles. Protective textiles refer to those textile products which have a functionality of giving protection
from something in some or the other sense. With regard to textiles, the protective textile field of the smart
textiles has to fulfill this requirement. A Mosquito repellent textile is one such textile product. Mosquitoes
classify as one of the deadliest pests known to man. In the tropical countries mosquito menace is one of the
greatest problems faced by the people in their every day lives. Mosquitoes cause more human suffering
than any other organism. Worldwide, however, mosquitoes transmit disease to more than 700, 000, 000
people annually and will be responsible for the deaths of 1 of every 17 people currently alive. Mosquitoes are
attracted to carbon dioxide as well as the warmth and humidity people give off-so subtle differences in body
chemistry between people make some people more prone to getting bitten by mosquitoes than others..
Mosquitoes have complex methods of detecting hosts and different types of mosquitoes react to different
stimuli. Most mosquitoes are active at dawn and dusk, but there are also mosquitoes that seek hosts during
the day. You can avoid being bitten by making sure you aren't attracting mosquitoes, using attractants to
lure mosquitoes elsewhere, using a repellent, and avoiding actions that diminish the effectiveness of the
repellent.
Mosquito repellent textiles is one of the revolutionary ways to advance the textile field by providing the
much-needed features of driving away mosquitoes, especially in the tropical areas. It protects the human
beings from the bite of mosquitoes and thereby promising safety from the mosquito-borne diseases, such as
malaria, dengue fever (DF), Nile fever,dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF), chicken gunia and filariasis, are
serious public health problems in tropical regions, especially in Africa and Asia. These diseases are
transmitted to human beings through mosquito bite only. Since there is no effective vaccine available for the
control of these diseases, prevention of mosquito bites is one of the main strategies to control or minimize
incidence of these diseases.
There are several mosquito repellents are available in today's market, for instance, an estimated 110 million
people safely use DEET worldwide each year. Developed by the US Department of Agriculture, Di-Ethyl
Meta Toluamide (DEET) was first used by the military. It is applied as a skin lotion and its effectiveness last
for four to five hours. DEET cannot be applied on fabrics, as it does not withstand even mild laundering.
People initially applied mosquito repellents on their skin directly as lotion. It is effective for a few hours and
most of them can be harmful to human beings as they are coming in direct contact with the skin. To impart
this character a finish of the mosquito repelling agent is given to the textile material. Due to these reasons,
people now prefer mosquito repellent textiles, as they may remain effective for up to a week when applied to
clothing. A repellent applied to clothing normally retains its effect longer than on skin .Generally, cotton and
nylon fabrics are treated with mosquito repellents since cotton is widely used as bed-sheets where nylon as
mosquito nets.
In this research, subjective evaluation of mosquito repellent finish applied cotton fabrics are analyzed .The
result of the repellent activity are based on the cage test for evaluating the effectiveness of mosquito
repellent finish.

Experimental
Materials And Methods
Material
Fabric
Cotton fabric with the following specification was scoured and bleached prior to the application of finish.
Fabric Count
Yarn Count
GSM
Type of weave

: 80 x 80
s
s
: 60 Combed X 60 Combed
: 180
: Plain

Chemicals Used
N-N Diethyl Benz amide
Mosquitorepellent Finish
(I) Pretreatment
0
The material is treated with soap at 60 C for 30 minutes to remove the dirt on the untreated fabric with
water. The soap solution is added into water in the proportion of 3: 1.Then the material is given hot wash
and cold wash. The M:L is 1:20.

(ii) Finish Application

The pretreated sample is treated with N-N Diethyl Benz amide at 7% and 14% concentration at room
temperature for 30 minutes with water. The liquor ratio is 1:7. The material is hydro dried for 5 minutes. The
PH is maintained at 6.Finally the fabric samples were tested for mosquito repellency as per the standard test
methods.
Standard Test Methods
Cage Test
Cage tests are the quick and cost-effective way to determine the mosquito-repelling qualities of treated
textiles. The tests follow the acknowledged protocol for cage tests of repellents. For such a test, volunteers
cover a defined area of their forearms with the textiles and then present it to hungry mosquitoes in cage.
Both the untreated cotton fabric and N-N Diethyl Benz amide treated fabric is placed inside the mosquito
cage containing mosquitos for 2 hours. The effectiveness of the finish is evaluated by depending upon the
number of mosquitos on the samples and the bites.

Result And Disscussion

Mosquito Repellent Finish
The N-N Diethyl Benz amide treated fabric gave 100% effectiveness on cotton fabric. The treated fabric 7%
and 14% N-N Diethyl Benz amide showed better mosquito repellency. There is a concentration increases
the repellent acitivity also increases. The findings of the study reveal that the 14 % concentration of
Mosquito repellent treated fabrics found to be very effective and can be used for hygenic and health care
application.
Conclusion
Apart from the industrial use, Mosquito repellent finish on textiles has become essential in our day today life
to live in free diseases and hygienic atmosphere. The finish has excellent potential in various textile uses
baby care products and . Night wears. Even though many products have come, but still there is very good
scope for the textile researchers in this field.
References
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The author is Senior Lecturer in Department of Fashion Technology at Kumaraguru College of Technology,
Coimbatore