Original article

Influence of knitted fabric construction

on the ultraviolet protection factor
of greige and bleached cotton fabrics

Textile Research Journal

83(7) 683699
! The Author(s) 2013
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DOI: 10.1177/0040517512467078
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Wai-yin Wong1, Jimmy Kwok-Cheong Lam1, Chi-wai Kan1 and

Ron Postle2

Abstract
The alarming increase of incidence of skin cancer has hastened development of ultraviolet (UV) protective clothing and
research on UV protection of apparel. Although various fabric parameters that affect ultraviolet radiation (UVR) transmission were studied by researches, most of them focused on woven fabrics and chemical approach in enhancing UV
protection. There were few studies concerning knitted fabrics, in particular the influence of fabric constructions on
ultraviolet protection factor (UPF) and structural properties. The magnitude of transmission and scattering of UVR
through a fabric is decided by fabric construction or knit structure, which is classified by geometrical arrangement of
yarns and fibers of the fabric. This paper aimed at studying the influence of different knit structures upon the UPF with
the three main knit stitches incorporated in the knitted fabric constructions, namely the knit, tuck and miss stitches. The
UPF and structural characteristics, including thickness, weight, stitch density and porosity of greige and bleached knitted
fabrics with different knit structures, are compared by adopting factorial analysis of variance. The results show that
fabrics with miss stitches possess a higher UPF than fabrics with tuck stitches. The double-knitted fabrics have better UV
protection than the single-knitted fabrics overall, but bleaching has different impacts on the UPF of single- and doubleknitted fabrics. The study reveals that fabric thickness or weight cannot be used solely in explaining the UV protective
performance of knitted fabrics. However, fabric porosity can be a good indicator for UV protection when comparing
fabrics with similar fabric weight and thickness but different structures or fiber contents.

Keywords
Ultraviolet protection factor, knit structures, weight, thickness, stitch density, porosity

Evidences were found globally that there is an increasing number of people dying from skin cancer each year
and it is apparent that over-exposure to ultraviolet radiation (UVR) is deemed to be one of the main reasons.1
Skin cancers are very common in the UK, with more
than 70,000 new cases diagnosed each year.2 In the US,
skin cancer is the most common cancer, which accounts
for nearly half of all cancer types with more than
2 million cases found each year.3 Skin cancer is also
the most common cancer type in Canada, which
accounts for an estimated one-third of all new cases
of cancer and its incidence rate continues to rise.4
Australia has the highest incidences of skin cancer in
the world which is almost four times the rates in the
UK, the US and Canada. Skin cancers account for 80%
of all newly diagnosed cancers in Australia and two in

three Australians will be diagnosed with skin cancer by

the time when they are 70.5 In Hong Kong, non-melanoma skin cancer is the eighth most common type of
cancer diagnosed, with over 717 new cases each year.6
The deleterious impacts caused by over-exposure to
UVR have increased the public awareness of the need
to adopt personal UV protective strategies, such as the

1
Institute of Textiles and Clothing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic
University, Hong Kong
2
School of Chemistry, University of New South Wales, Australia

Corresponding author:
Jimmy Kwok-Cheong Lam, Institute of Textiles and Clothing, The
Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Email: tclamj@inet.polyu.edu.hk

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use of sunscreens on the parts of body that are exposed

to the sun. However, the protection provided by sunscreens is not long lasting and requires frequent supplement after a period of time due to continuous sweating
from the skin. Inappropriate usage of sunscreens, such
as applying an insucient amount or thickness on the
skin, may attenuate the original UV protective ability.
Although clothing, which acts as the second skin of
human can provide some protection against harmful
UVR and the market value of UV protective clothing
is noteworthy, clothing can only provide limited protection against UVR, in particular for knitwear with a more
porous and stretchable structure than the woven garments. Many textile manufacturers try to enhance the
UV protective performance of garments using a chemical approach with the use of dyes, whitening agents and
UV absorbers such as titanium dioxide or zinc oxide.
Nevertheless, the photodegradation of fabric dyes, optical brightening agents and the potential hazard of these
chemicals to the human body lacks investigation. The
study of Khazova et al.7 indicated that there is a degradation of eciency of the optical brightening agents, as
well as photochemical degradation of fabric dyes after
prolonged exposure to UVR. It reveals the problems
about the sustainable function provided by UV protective nishing on textile products, including pollution and
excessive water consumption brought by chemical treatments giving rise to environmental concerns. Many
researchers have studied various fabric parameters that
inuence UVR transmission, such as ber composition,811 fabric construction,1116 yarn twist,17,18 thickness,8,10,19 weight,19 wetness or moisture content,2022
stretch or extensibility,20,22,23 chemical treatment or
additives and coloration.2432
However, most of the studies have concentrated on
the above fabric parameters with woven fabrics only,
whereas there have been few studies concerning knitted
fabrics, in particular the inuence of knitted fabric construction on UV protection. Stankovic et al.17 and
Wilson and Parisi20 have studied UV protection properties with knitted fabrics, but neither of them explicated how the knit structures exactly inuence UV
protection of fabrics., Stankovic et al.17 studied the
ultraviolet protection factor (UPF) of grey-state plain
cotton knitted fabrics by investigating the impact of
yarn twist and surface geometry instead of the knitted
fabric constructions. Wilson and Parisi20 compared the
UV protection provided by two knit structures (eyelet
and pique) and two weave structures; however, the fabrics were composed of dierent ber contents. The UV
protective ability of fabric depends on the amount of
UVR reected or absorbed by brous materials, transmitted through pores between ber and yarn, and also
scattered within the fabric layer. Fabric construction is
one of the important factors aecting these paths for

UVR. The arrangement of yarns and bers determined

by fabric construction can inuence the compactness of
the structure, together with the open space within the
fabric. Other physical properties, such as the amount of
open area produced when tension is applied or the
amount of shrinkage after laundering, are presumably
in connection with fabric construction.
Moreover, many researchers agree that dyes can
increase the UVR blocking property of a fabric and
darker colors can provide better UV protection. The
use of UV absorbers even gives excellent UV blocking
performance to fabric. Nonetheless, knitted fabrics have
more complex fabric geometry, rather a porous structure
and are more elastic than woven fabrics. It should be
noted that the UV protection of fabrics enhanced by
chemical treatment is only sucient when the fabric
structure is compact enough.14 Knitted fabrics are
easily deformed or stretched during wearing due to
their elastic characteristics. The fabric layer will
become thinner when it is worn next to skin and more
open spaces will be created for transmitting UVR in the
actual end-use. Moon and Pailthorpe22 found that there
is 15.5% elongation on average when fabrics are in contact with the body and this caused a remarkable reduction of UPF. The increase of the UVR penetration is
almost linear with stretch.14 It can be anticipated that
the UV protection provided by the chemical approach
may not always be eective because of the actual wearing condition of garments. Although darker shaded
clothing can provide better UV protection than those
with pastel colors, more infrared (IR) radiation is
absorbed and heat is generated simultaneously, which
makes the wearers feel unpleasant under hot conditions.
Therefore, a balance between UV protection and thermophysiological comfort is essential when developing
UV protective garments.
This paper aimed at studying the UV protection
property of knitted fabrics from a fundamental level
by considering how the modication of knitted fabric
construction can improve the UV protective ability of
fabrics, instead of using a chemical approach as a secondary level. Fabric construction is deemed to present
the simplest and cheapest solution to achieve good UV
protection without additional nishing processes.31
From the literature review, fabric construction has
been proposed as one of the most important variables
aecting UVR transmission, especially when light pastel
colored fabrics were used as UV protective clothing.14

Experimental details
Materials
In this study, 10 fabric constructions were examined
wherein four structures are single-knitted fabrics and

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685

Figure 1. Basic knit stitches viewed from the fabric face: (a) knit stitch; (b) tuck stitch; (c) miss stitch.

Figure 2. Yarn path diagrams of different knitted fabric constructions.

the other six are double-knitted fabrics. Single-knitted

fabrics are knitted with one set of needles, whereas
double-knitted fabrics are knitted with two sets of needles, either rib or interlock gating. Dierent knitted
fabric constructions were designed based on the combination of three basic knit stitches knit, tuck and
miss stitches which are shown in Figure 1. The yarn
path diagrams for the 10 constructions are illustrated
in Figure 2.
Fabric specimens were knitted using a Stoll CMS
822 14 G computer at knitting machine using 100%
combed organic cotton yarn. Plied yarns were used
with the yarn count 3/40 s (three single yarns of
40 cotton counts were combined in the yarn feeding

to get a plied yarn). It is usual practice for knitwear

production to have plied yarns for knitting instead of
one single yarn with the same yarn count in order to
achieve higher strength, uniformity, better abrasion and
fabric appearance. The approximate yarn count for the
plied yarn is 42 tex and the calculated yarn diameter is
0.01 inch, according to the cloth geometry by Peirce33
and Booth.34
Apart from untreated greige fabrics, another set of
greige fabric specimens were scoured and bleached to
remove the natural pigments and impurities in order to
investigate the impact of bleaching against UV protection among various knitted fabric constructions. The
cotton knitted fabrics were scoured and bleached in a

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combined process at laboratory conditions with 4 g/l

hydrogen peroxide, 6 g/l sodium hydroxide, 0.5 g/l stabilizer and 0.5 g/l wetting agent. Hydrogen peroxide
was chosen as the bleaching agent to minimize the
damage on fabrics during the bleaching process.

Test methods
Assessment of ultraviolet protection factor
The UV protective ability of fabrics is commonly
expressed in terms of UPF. The UPF of fabric specimens was measured using a Cary 300 Conc ultravioletvisible (UV-Vis) spectrophotometer equipped with an
integrating sphere and a Schott UG lter for minimizing any measurement error caused by uorescence.
UPF measurement was conducted corresponding to
the Australian/New Zealand Standard AS/NZS
4399:1996.35 Fabric specimens were evaluated in a
dry, at and tensionless state with measurements
taken in both machine and cross-machine directions
of the fabric. All fabric specimens were conditioned
under standard environment for 24 hours prior to
assessment.36 The transmittance over a wavelength
range of 290400 nm with 5 nm intervals was measured
using the spectrophotometer for calculating the UPF of
fabric specimens using Equation (1):37,38
P400 nm
Eeff
nm E  S 

UPF 0 P400 290
nm
E
290 nm E  S  T 


The UPF is dened as the ratio of the average eective

UVR irradiance calculated for unprotected skin (Ee)
to the average eective UVR irradiance calculated for
the skin protected by test fabric (E0 ), where E is the
relative erythemal spectral eectiveness, S is solar
spectral irradiance in Wm2 nm1, T is the spectral
transmittance of the fabric,  is the wavelength in nm
and
 is the bandwidth in nm. Although denitions of
UVR and ultraviolet B (UVB) given in the standards
start at 280 nm, the measurement of UVR transmission
of the specimen records from 290 to 400 nm. The UVR
irradiance at wavelengths below 290 nm is not used in
the calculations because these wavelengths are unlikely
to reach the Earths surface.35 The inclusion of these
wavelengths in the calculations would preclude the use
of some otherwise acceptable spectrophotometers and
spectroradiometers.

Fabric thickness, weight and stitch density

Thicknesses of fabric specimens were measured corresponding to the standard test method ASTM D1777-96
(Reapproved 2011).39 A calibrated digital thickness
tester with counter balance was used to measure the

thickness without distortion in a plane parallel to the

presser foot and anvil. Fabric weight was measured in
accordance with the standard test method ASTM
D3776-09 (Option C for small swatch fabric).40 The
stitch densities of fabric specimens were obtained by
counting the number of courses and wales to the nearest half stitch. As there are rather complex fabric constructions being assessed, such as rib, cardigan and
Milano, the wales and courses recognized on visual
inspection of the fabric may be made up of two or
more structures. The determination of the number of
stitches per unit area was acquired.

Porosity
Previous studies found that porosity is an important
indicator for UV protection performance of a
fabric.8,4145 When UVR strikes the fabric, it can be
reected, absorbed by ber, scattered within the
fabric layer and transmitted through bers and fabric
pores.18 The incident radiation passing through fabric
is largely dependent on the percentage of volume within
a fabric in which there is no ber in that volume from
the fabric face to back.46 Therefore, the threedimensional nature of fabrics with various knit structures can be investigated by considering the fabric porosity instead of either fabric thickness or fabric weight
only. The more porous structure of the fabric will result
in a higher porosity, while a tighter structure gives a
lower porosity. Knitted fabrics usually have a higher
porosity than woven fabrics.47 Various methods of
determining the porosity of porous materials were
rstly developed in the eld of petroleum technology,
wherein the gravimetric method has been applied to
fabrics.44 Porosity can be dened as the proportion of
void space within the boundaries of a solid material,
compared to its total volume; in other words, it is the
fraction of void space in a porous medium.4749
Porosity is usually expressed in percentage (%); the calculation is shown in Equation (2):


t
Porosity 100 1 
m

where t is the bulk density (g/cm3) and m is the ber

density (g/cm3). The ber density of cotton, 1.54 g/cm3,
was substituted in the equation for calculation.50 The
calculation of bulk density (g/cm3), t, of a knitted
fabric is obtained by Equation (3), where M is the
mass per unit area of fabric and V is the volume of
the unit area of fabric:51,52

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t

M
V

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687

The volume of the unit area of fabric is simply equivalent to the geometrical fabric thickness, t, and therefore
calculation of bulk density can be summarized as
Equation (4):51
Bulk Density g=cm3

Mg=cm2
tcm

The fabric pores of greige and bleached knitted fabrics

with dierent structures were assessed visually through
the microscope under standard condition. A stereo
microscope Lecia M156C was used to capture the
micrographs with 25.0 magnication. The micrographs of greige and bleached single-knitted fabrics
and double-knitted fabrics are shown in Figures 3
and 4, respectively.

Visual assessment on fabric pores

Dierent fabric constructions give a unique fabric surface appearance as well as the size of fabric pores,
which determines the amount UVR transmission.

Analysis
In order to systematically study the impact of knit
structures and bleaching on the UV protective

Figure 3. Micrographs of greige and bleached single-knitted cotton fabrics at gauge length 14 G: (a) all knit; (b) knit & tuck; (c) knit &
miss (25%); (d) knit & miss (50%).

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Figure 4. Micrographs of greige and bleached double-knitted cotton fabrics at gauge length 14 G: (a) 1  1 rib; (b) half cardigan;
(c) full cardigan; (d) half Milano; (e) full Milano; (f) interlock.

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performance in relation to the structural parameters of

knitted fabrics, factorial analysis of variance
(ANOVA) was conducted. It identies the existence
of signicant dierences in various variables studied,
which includes the UPF and fabric structural properties covering fabric weight, thickness, stitch density
and porosity among dierent knit structures. Any differences between the variables studied were considered
as signicant if the p-value was less than or equal to
0.05. The interaction eect and main eect were identied among groups of variables. The eect size statistics (partial eta squared) were examined to indicate
the proportion of variance of the dependent variable
that is explained by the independent variable.53
It reveals the relative magnitude of the dierences
between means, or the amount of total variance in
the dependent variable that is predictable from knowledge of the levels of the independent variable.54 The
eect size can be classied as small (partial eta
squared 0.01), medium (partial eta squared 0.06)
and large (partial eta squared 0.14) according to
Cohens criterion.55 Post-hoc tests were performed
for a whole set comparison by exploring the dierences between each of the fabric construction groups
in the study. Post-hoc tests compare each pair of
groups systematically and indicate whether there is a
signicant dierence in the means of dependent variables. Since single-knitted fabrics and double-knitted
fabrics have very distinct fabric constructions and
structural properties, their results are discussed and
analyzed separately to achieve a more accurate elucidation. In addition, a paired-samples t-test was used
to compare the mean scores of the UPF and structural
parameters of the same groups of fabrics before and
after bleaching in order to determine the impact of
bleaching on the UPF and the structural parameters
studied.
Apart from analyzing the results by ANOVA, the
relationships between the UPF and the four structural parameters were explored by a correlation analysis. This determines the degree to which the
variables are related by using the Pearson correlation
coecient (r). It is obtained from the correlation
analysis, which ranged from 1 to + 1, in other
words, from negative correlation to positive correlation between two variables. The size of the absolute
value of r provides an indication of the strength of
the relationship. According to Cohens suggestions,
the strength of correlation can be divided into
three levels: small (r 0.100.29), medium (r 0.30
0.49) and large (r 0.501.0).55 Preliminary analyses
were performed by generating a scatterplot for
each pair of variables to ensure no violation of
the assumptions of normality, linearity and
homoscedasticity.53

Results and discussion

The UPF and the main structural parameters fabric
thickness, fabric weight, stitch density and porosity of
dierent knitted fabric structures are shown in
Figures 59, respectively. The error bars in these gures
represent 95% condence interval for variability of the
data collected.

Ultraviolet protection factor of single-knitted

cotton fabrics
The results of the ANOVA summarized in Table 1 indicate that the UPF signicantly diers among the four
single-knit structures (F3,16 79.824, p  0.05), greige
and bleached fabrics (F1,16 51.705, p  0.05) and
there is an interaction between knit structures
and bleaching (F3,16 23.346, p  0.05) aecting the
UPF. The eect sizes of knit structure (partial
eta
squared 0.937),
bleaching
(partial
eta
squared 0.764) and the interaction (partial eta
squared 0.814) are large. Although the existing interaction denotes that the structure of specimen was
aected by bleaching, the eect size of the knit structure is larger than bleaching, as well as larger than the
interaction eect. Most of the single-knitted fabric specimens exhibited a signicant increase in UPF after
bleaching, except the all knit, as shown in Figure 5(a)
(t11 2.73, p  0.05, two-tailed). Some studies
reported that bleaching caused an increase in UVR
transmission of cotton fabrics because of the removal
of natural pigments and lignin, which can absorb UVR;
however, it should be noted that the fabrics studied
were mostly woven fabrics.8,42,43 Nevertheless, shrinkage in the fabric caused by bleaching closed the small
gaps between yarns and resulted in less UVR
transmission.
The post-hoc test compares each pair of single-knit
structures and indicates whether there is a signicant
dierence in the means of the UPF. It shows that most
of the single-knit structures signicantly dier from
each other (p  0.05). The largest signicant dierence
in UPF for greige single-knitted fabrics exists between
the knit & miss (50%) (Mean 7.28, SD 0.37) and
knit & tuck (Mean 3.77, SD 0.29). The situation
changed after bleaching, with the largest dierence in
UPF occurring between the knit & miss (50%)
(Mean 8.76, SD 0.54) and all knit (Mean 5.96,
SD 0.35). In general, single-knitted fabrics with knit
& miss structures oer a higher UPF than the all knit,
whereas the knit & tuck structure gives the lowest UPF
in the greige stage. The long straight oat of miss stitch
reduces the elasticity of fabric by pulling the adjacent
columns of wale closer together and, thus, less open
spaces are present for transmitting UVR. The knit &

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Figure 5. Ultraviolet protection factor (UPF) of greige and bleached, single- and double-knitted cotton fabrics at gauge length 14 G
(with error bars): (a) UPF of single-knitted fabrics; (b) UPF of double-knitted fabrics.

Figure 6. Thickness of greige and bleached, single- and double-knitted cotton fabrics at gauge length 14 G (with error bars):
(a) thickness of single-knitted fabrics; (b) thickness of double-knitted fabrics.

miss (50%) has more miss stitches than the knit & miss
(25%) as well as higher UPF. The micrographs shown
in Figure 3(c) and (d) provide a comparison between
these two structures with a higher number of wales per
unit length in the knit & miss (50%) than that in the
knit & miss (25%) for both greige and bleached stages.

The knit & tuck incorporated with tuck stitches has a

lower UPF overall because the side limbs or legs of the
tuck loop are not restricted at the feet by the head of an
old loop and therefore the tuck loops tend to straighten
themselves, causing the loops in the adjacent wales to
be pushed apart. The presence of tuck loops made the

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Figure 7. Fabric weight of greige and bleached, single- and double-knitted cotton fabrics at gauge length 14 G (with error bars):
(a) fabric weight of single-knitted fabrics; (b) fabric weight of double-knitted fabrics.

Figure 8. Fabric stitch density of greige and bleached, single- and double-knitted cotton fabrics at gauge length 14 G (with error
bars): (a) stitch density of single-knitted fabrics; (b) stitch density of double-knitted fabrics.

fabrics bulkier and wider. Fabrics with knit & tuck

structures have a lower number of wales per unit
length with larger fabric pores, as shown in
Figure 3(b), than the other single-knit structures.

Ultraviolet protection factor of double-knitted

cotton fabrics
Both greige and bleached double-knitted fabrics have a
generally higher UPF (ranging from UPF 6.5 to 38.8)

than the single-knitted fabrics (ranged from UFP 3.8 to

8.8). Double-knitted fabrics are produced with two
sets of needles, with the second needle bed located at
a right angle to the rst bed of needles. Hence, there is
one more layer of brous materials to absorb the UVR,
as well as greater the probability that the incident UVR
will encounter more bers along its path.18 A general
comparison of UPF values for various double-knitted
fabric structures is shown in Figure 5(b). There are
signicant dierences between the UPF of the six

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Figure 9. Porosity of greige and bleached, single- and double-knitted cotton fabrics at gauge length 14G (with error bars):
(a) porosity of single-knitted fabrics; (b) porosity of double-knitted fabrics.

Table 1. Summarized results of the two-way between-groups analysis of variance (ANOVA) for ultraviolet protection factor (UPF)
and structural parameters of fabric specimens
Single-knitted fabrics
Dependent variables
UPF

Fabric thickness

Fabric weight

Stitch density

Calculated Porosity

Double-knitted fabrics

Independent
variables

F test

p-value

Partial eta
square

F test

p-value

Partial
eta square

Structures
Bleaching
Interaction
Structures
Bleaching
Interaction
Structures
Bleaching
Interaction
Structures
Bleaching
Interaction
Structures
Bleaching
Interaction

F3,16 79.824
F1,16 51.705
F3,16 23.346
F3,16 173.333
F1,16 3640.474
F3,16 26.298
F3,16 128.228
F1,16 2701.279
F3,16 15.053
F3,16 308.314
F1,16 425.658
F3,16 9.747
F3,16 45.958
F1,16 0.292
F3,16 7.423

0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.001
0.000
0.596
0.002

0.937
0.764
0.814
0.970
0.996
0.831
0.960
0.994
0.738
0.983
0.964
0.646
0.896
0.018
0.582

F5,24 5.348
F1,24 516.202
F5,24 21.325
F5,24 76.091
F1,24 1464.266
F5,24 32.596
F5,24 473.943
F1,24 1225.925
F5,24 269.254
F5,24 448.017
F1,24 77.63
F5,24 14.214
F5,24 91.179
F1,24 87.908
F5,24 24.843

0.002
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000

0.527
0.956
0.816
0.941
0.984
0.872
0.990
0.981
0.982
0.989
0.764
0.748
0.950
0.786
0.838

double-knit structures (F5,24 5.348, p  0.05), the UPF

of greige and bleached double-knitted fabrics
(F1,24 516.202, p  0.05), and an interaction exists
between knit structures and bleaching (F5,24 21.325,
p  0.05), which inuenced the UPF as shown in
Table 1. Contrary to the results of the single-knitted

fabrics, bleaching (partial eta squared 0.956) has a

greater inuence upon the variance in UPF of doubleknitted fabrics than the knit structures (partial eta
squared 0.527) and also the interaction (partial eta
squared 0.816). The UPF of the six double-knitted
fabrics decreased signicantly after bleaching

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693

(t17 8.61, p  0.05, two-tailed), which is opposite to

the results of the four single-knitted fabrics. The results
here agree with previous studies, which stated that
bleaching causes more UVR to be transmitted through
the bleached cotton fabrics because of the absence of
natural pigments and impurities. The impact of shrinkage for the double-knitted fabrics resulted from bleaching does not overcome the eect of bleaching, which
happened in the single-knitted fabric specimens.
Double-knitted fabrics are more dimensionally stable
and compact than single-knitted fabrics. The doubleknitted fabrics are unlikely to be stretched or deformed
during the process of bleaching. This conforms to the
results shown in Table 1 that there is a smaller eect
size of the interaction between bleaching and structures
(partial eta squared 0.816) than the eect of bleaching
alone (partial eta squared 0.956). The results of UPF
for the bleached double-knitted fabric specimens can be
explained with a more evident inference than the greige
double-knitted fabric specimens containing the natural
pigments and impurities.
The results of the post-hoc test show that most of the
double-knitted structures signicantly dier from each
other (p  0.05). The largest dierence in UPF is found
between the greige half Milano (Mean 38.84,
SD 2.75) and greige interlock (Mean 25.85,
SD 1.61). After bleaching, the largest dierence in
UPF is found between the bleached full cardigan
(Mean 6.52, SD 0.31) and bleached interlock
(Mean 23.35, SD 0.51). The bleached interlock
obtains the highest UPF, followed by the bleached
Milano and bleached 1  1 rib, while the bleached cardigan possesses the lowest UPF. The interlock fabrics
are produced with interlock gating in which the columns of wales are directly behind each other on both
the fabric face and back. They have a dimensionally
stable structure that does not tend to be stretched
easily. A compact structure in the interlock fabrics
can be observed from Figure 4(f), showing that adjacent columns of wale are packed closely together giving
a rmer fabric structure with less amount and smaller
size of fabric pores. However, fabrics other than the
interlock structure that were produced with rib gating
obtain a relatively lower UPF. In rib gating, the needles
of one bed are located in the spaces between the needles
of the other bed and the fabrics are more extensible in
the course-wise direction. The full Milano and half
Milano obtain the second-highest UPF after bleaching
because of the miss stitches incorporated in the fabric
structures. The only dierence between the full Milano
structure and half Milano structure is that one more
course is knitted on the front needle and missed at
the back. There are more miss stitches in the full
Milano fabric structure than the half Milano, which
results in higher UPF. The cardigan fabrics possess

a lower UPF in the bleached specimens than the

Milano fabrics because the tuck loops in cardigan fabrics extend the fabric in the course-wise direction and
larger fabric pores are created, which are illustrated in
Figure 4(b)(e). As there are more tuck stitches in the
construction of the full cardigan than that of the half
cardigan, the UPF of the bleached full cardigan is lower
than the bleached half cardigan.

Fabric thickness of single-knitted cotton fabrics

The results of the ANOVA in Table 1 show that there
are statistically signicant dierences in fabric thickness
among the four single-knit structures (F3,16 173.333,
p  0.05), greige and bleached fabrics (F1,16 3640.474,
p  0.05) and there is an interaction between knit structures and bleaching (F3,16 26.298, p  0.05) aecting
the fabric thickness. The eect sizes of knit structure
(partial eta squared 0.97), bleaching (partial eta
squared 0.996) and the interaction between knit
structures and bleaching (partial eta squared 0.831)
are large. There is a signicant increment of fabric
thickness among the four single-knit structures after
bleaching, as shown in Figure 6(a) (t11 21.29,
p  0.05, two-tailed). The results of the post-hoc test
also reveal there are the largest dierences in fabric
thickness between the greige knit & miss (50%)
(Mean 0.95, SD 0) and greige knit & miss (25%)
(Mean 0.82, SD 0.02), and also between the
bleached knit & miss (50%) (Mean 1.48, SD 0.01)
and bleached all knit (Mean 1.19, SD 0.01). In both
greige and bleached stages of fabrics, knit & tuck has
higher thickness than knit & miss (25%), but the results
in UPF for these two structures are reversed. Although
the miss stitches in the fabric construction can make the
fabric narrower in width, while tuck stitches increase
the width of fabric as well as the fabric thickness, the
fabric pores within the knit & tuck fabrics are larger
than the other knit structures, as shown in Figure 3(b),
and more UVR can be passed through the fabric pores
directly. It contradicts the general concept that a
thicker fabric can give better UV protection regardless
of the fabric structure and porosity.

Fabric thickness of double-knitted cotton fabrics

Double-knitted fabrics have the signicant dierences
in fabric thickness among the six double-knit structures
(F5,24 76.091, p  0.05), greige and bleached fabrics
(F1,24 1464.266, p  0.05) and interaction exists
between structure and bleaching (F5,24 32.596,
p  0.05). Knit structure (partial eta squared 0.941),
bleaching (partial eta squared 0.984) and the interaction between knit structures and bleaching (partial
eta squared 0.872) have large eect sizes. The overall

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thickness of double-knitted fabric specimens shown in

Figure 6(b) indicated the thickness increased signicantly after bleaching (t17 12.03, p  0.05, twotailed). From the results of the post-hoc test, the largest
dierences in fabric thickness are found between the
greige half cardigan (Mean 1.53, SD 0.06) and
greige 1  1 rib (Mean 1.23, SD 0.02), and also
between the bleached interlock (Mean 1.98,
SD 0.01) and bleached 1  1 rib (Mean 1.53,
SD 0.02). In the greige stage, the half cardigan has
the highest thickness, while the 1  1 rib possesses the
lowest thickness. However, the situation changed after
bleaching in which the bleached interlock obtains the
highest thickness and the bleached 1  1 rib has the
lowest thickness again. The interlock has the greatest
change in fabric thickness by 46.7% after bleaching,
which results in the variation in UPF of interlock fabrics, with the lowest UPF among structures in the
greige stage becoming the structure that possesses
the highest UPF after bleaching. This agrees with the
results in the eect size of bleaching in double-knitted
fabrics (partial eta squared 0.956), which has a
greater inuence upon the variance in UPF than the
knit structures of double-knitted fabrics (partial eta
squared 0.527).
The correlations between UPF and fabric thickness
of single- and double-knitted fabrics in greige and
bleached stages are studied and the results are indicated
in Table 2. Positive correlations are found between the
UPF and the fabric thickness of bleached single-knitted
fabrics (r 0.821, p  0.05) and the bleached doubleknitted fabrics (r 0.6, p  0.05), which both have a
large strength of correlation (r 0.501.0). The higher
the thickness of bleached fabrics, the better UV protective ability obtained. However, this is not always
true when comparing dierent knit structures, such as
the bleached knit & tuck, with the second-highest thickness but also the second-lowest UPF among the singleknit structures. There are no signicant correlations

between UPF and thickness of the greige single-knitted

fabrics (r 0.298, p 0.347) and greige doubleknitted fabrics (r 0.416, p 0.086). The variation in
fabric thickness of the greige single- and double-knitted
fabrics may not signicantly aect the UV protection
performance because of the natural pigments and
impurities that absorb a certain amount of UVR
already.

Fabric weight of single-knitted cotton fabrics

Similar to the results of fabric thickness, the results of
the ANOVA in Table 1 indicate that the fabric weight
of single-knitted fabrics dier signicantly in structures
(F3,16 128.228, p  0.05), greige and bleached fabrics
(F1,16 2701.279, p  0.05) and an interaction exists
between knit structures and bleaching (F3,16 15.053,
p  0.05) that has an impact on fabric weight. The eect
sizes of knit structure (partial eta squared 0.96),
bleaching (partial eta squared 0.994) and the interaction (partial eta squared 0.738) are also large.
There is an overall increment of fabric weight among
the single-knitted fabrics after bleaching, as shown in
Figure 7(a) (t11 23.69, p  0.05, two-tailed). The
results of the post-hoc test show that the greige knit
& miss (50%) (Mean 184.49, SD 2.93) and greige
knit & tuck (Mean 153.58, SD 3.98) obtain the largest dierence in fabric weight, and also between the
bleached knit & miss (50%) (Mean 280.25,
SD 3.87) and bleached all knit (Mean 224.03,
SD 4.43). Although the knit & tuck and knit & miss
(25%) have similar fabric weights in both greige and
bleached stages, the UPF of the greige knit & tuck is
lower than that of the greige knit & miss (25%). Fabrics
with similar fabric weight do not have the resembling
UV protective performance because of the distinct
fabric structures and other factors, such as size of
fabric pores.

Table 2. Pearson correlation coefficients (r) between the ultraviolet protection factor (UPF) and the structural
parameters of fabric specimens
Single-knitted fabrics
Structural parameters
Fabric thickness
Fabric weight
Stitch density
Calculated Porosity

Greige

Double-knitted fabrics
Bleached

NS

0.298
0.702a
0.813a
0.896a

0.821
0.949a
0.142NS
0.246NS

The correlation with the UPF is significant at the 0.05 confidence level.
The correlation with the UPF is not significant at the 0.05 confidence level.

NS

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Greige

Bleached
NS

0.416
0.242NS
0.044NS
0.546a

0.600a
0.958a
0.713a
0.812a

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695

Fabric weight of double-knitted cotton fabrics

Similarly, there are signicant dierences in fabric
weight among the six double-knit structures
(F5,24 473.943, p  0.05), greige and bleached fabrics
(F1,24 1225.925, p  0.05) and an interaction exists
between structure and bleaching (F5,24 269.254,
p  0.05). Knit structure (partial eta squared 0.99),
bleaching (partial eta squared 0.981) and the interaction between knit structures and bleaching (partial
eta squared 0.982) have large eect sizes. The overall
fabric weights of double-knitted fabric specimens are
shown in Figure 7(b) and most of them increased
after bleaching except the full cardigan (t17 3.93,
p  0.05, two-tailed). This may be because of the loss
of brous material from the full cardigan during the
scouring and bleaching process resulting in weight
loss: further investigation is required in the future.
From the results of the post-hoc test, the greige interlock (Mean 298.11, SD 1.29) and greige 1  1 rib
(Mean 250.57, SD 2.76) have the largest dierence
in fabric weight, as well as the bleached interlock
(Mean 430.14, SD 5.26) and bleached full cardigan
(Mean 241.66, SD 3.27). The bleached interlock
and Milano have relatively higher fabric weight than
the bleached 1  1 rib and cardigan because of the compact structures where yarns are closely packed together
resulting in higher fabric weight.
From the results of correlation analysis shown in
Table 2, positive correlations are found between the
UPF and fabric weight of the greige single-knitted fabrics (r 0.702, p  0.05), bleached single-knitted fabrics
(r 0.949, p  0.05) and the bleached double-knitted
fabrics (r 0.958, p  0.05). The strength of these positive correlations is large (r 0.501.0) according to
Cohens suggestion.55 With higher fabric weight, the
UPF of greige and bleached single-knitted fabrics and
bleached double-knitted fabrics can be enhanced.
However, there is insignicant correlation between the
UPF and fabric weight of greige double-knitted fabrics
(r 0.242, p 0.334). This can be conrmed with
Figures 5(b) and 7(b), which show that even though
the greige double-knitted fabrics have similar fabric
weights, their UPF results are quite distinct. The natural pigments and impurities in greige fabrics may be
the reason for the insignicant correlation resulted.
Double-knitted fabrics have a relatively more compact
structure than the single-knitted fabrics and there are
natural pigments and impurities encompassed in the
greige double-knitted fabrics. The brous material
and the natural pigments already absorb the UVR
eectively; therefore, variation in the fabric weight
does not have a great impact on the UPF. Fabrics
with similar weights but dierent colors or ber contents may exhibit very distinct UV protective ability,

which suggested that fabric weight is not the only

factor in explaining the UV protection of fabric.

Stitch density of single-knitted cotton fabrics

Signicant dierences in fabric stitch density are found
among the four single-knit structures (F3,16 308.31,
p  0.05), greige and bleached fabrics (F1,16 425.66,
p  0.05) and the interaction between knit structures
and bleaching that inuenced the stitch density
(F3,16 9.75, p  0.05), as shown in Table 1. All of
their eect sizes are large; knit structures (partial eta
squared 0.98)
and
bleaching
(partial
eta
squared 0.96) have similar eect size and both are
larger than the interaction (partial eta squared 0.65).
The shrinkage caused by scouring and bleaching
brought a signicant increase in stitch density, as
shown in Figure 8(a) (t11 11.11, p  0.05, twotailed). The results of the post-hoc test indicate that
the largest dierences in stitch density are found
between the greige all knit (Mean 80.61, SD 1.06)
and greige knit & tuck (Mean 39.22, SD 3.03) and
between the bleached all knit (Mean 107.13,
SD 4.55) and bleached knit & tuck (Mean 53.01,
SD 3.49). However, insignicant dierences in stitch
density are found between the bleached all knit and
bleached knit & miss (25%), as well as the bleached
knit & miss (25%) and bleached knit & miss (50%).
The knit & tuck has the lowest stitch density, while
the other three single-knit structures have a similar
stitch density because the tuck stitch widens the fabric
and results in fewer wales per length.

Stitch density of double-knitted cotton fabrics

Likewise, the results of the ANOVA in Table 1 show
that the stitch density of double-knitted fabrics diers
signicantly in the knit structures (F5,24 448.017,
p  0.05), greige and bleached fabrics (F1,24 77.63,
p  0.05) and also there is an interaction between structures and bleaching that inuenced the stitch density
(F5,24 14.214, p  0.05). The eect sizes of structures
(partial eta squared 0.989), bleaching (partial eta
squared 0.764) and the interaction (partial eta
squared 0.748) are large; the knit structure has
greater impact on stitch density than bleaching. Most
of the double-knit structures studied show a signicant
increase in stitch density after bleaching (t17 3.99,
p  0.05, two-tailed), except the half cardigan with an
insignicant decrease in stitch density. The cardigan
structures do not have obvious variation in stitch density after bleaching when compared to the other four
double-knit structures, as shown in the micrographs
in Figure 4. The structure with tuck stitches is
generally less extensible in nature particularly to the

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double-knitted fabric, which has a compact fabric

structure. The results of the post-hoc test indicate the
largest dierences in stitch density are found between
the greige half Milano (Mean 99.48, SD 1.15)
and greige full cardigan (Mean 30.95, SD 4.69),
and also between the bleached half Milano
(Mean 104.21, SD 4.35) and bleached full cardigan
(Mean 30.93, SD 2.15). Although the half Milano
structure possesses the highest stitch density and there
are insignicant dierences in stitch density among the
half Milano, full Milano and interlock, the UPFs
among them are quite dierent: the interlock has the
highest UPF among the six double-knit structures.
The results of the correlation analysis shown in
Table 2 reveal that signicant positive correlations are
only found in the greige single-knitted fabrics
(r 0.813, p  0.05) and bleached double-knitted fabrics (r 0.713, p  0.05). These positive correlations
indicate the UV protection will be enhanced when the
stitch density of greige single-knitted fabrics and
bleached double-knitted fabrics increased. The greige
single-knitted fabrics have natural pigments and impurities acting as natural UV absorbers and more UVR
can be absorbed when the natural UV absorbers in the
yarn are packed closer together. However, the greige
double-knitted fabrics already have a dense fabric
structure together with natural UV absorbers for blocking the UVR; therefore, the increase in stitch density of
greige double-knitted fabrics will not bring signicant
impact to the UPF. After bleaching, the natural UV
absorbers were removed and therefore the fabric structure of bleached double-knitted fabrics becomes a more
paramount factor in explaining the variation in UPF
when the stitch density increases.

Porosity of single-knitted cotton fabrics

Porosity was found to be a major indicator for UV
protection of a fabric.8,4145 The fabric construction
inuences the pore size, pore distribution, pore connectivity and total pore volume, and all of these properties of the macro-pore are important in determining
UVR transmission of a fabric.56 By studying the porosity of fabric, the fabric construction can be considered in a three-dimensional approach with the
structural parameters, thickness and weight (areal density), ber density and the void spaces within the fabric
layer included.
From the results of the ANOVA shown in Table 1, it
can be found that a statistically signicant dierence in
porosity is found among the four single-knit structures
(F3,16 45.958, p  0.05), but not between the greige
and bleached single-knitted fabrics (F1,16 0.292,
p 0.596). This reveals that bleaching does not have a
conspicuous impact on the porosity of single-knitted

fabrics, although there is an interaction between bleaching and the single-knit structure (F3,16 7.423,
p  0.05). The eect size of knit structure (partial eta
squared 0.896) is greater than that of bleaching (partial eta squared 0.018) and also the interaction
between knit structures and bleaching (partial eta
squared 0.582). There are insignicant increases in
porosity for the single-knitted fabrics after bleaching
that are contrary to the previous structural parameters
studied (t11 0.34, p 0.737, two-tailed), as shown in
Figure 9(a). Although there are signicant changes in
fabric thickness and fabric weight for the single-knitted
fabrics, porosity has less variation after bleaching
because the shrinkage of fabrics in scouring and bleaching caused increase in fabric weight and thickness
simultaneously.
The results of the post-hoc test indicate that the greige
knit & tuck (Mean 89.35, SD 0.11) and greige knit &
miss (25%) (Mean 86.97, SD 0.32) have the largest
dierence in porosity, as well as the bleached knit & tuck
(Mean 88.42, SD 0.12) and bleached knit & miss
(25%) (Mean 87.29, SD 0.30). The porosities
among the other three structures, all knit, knit & miss
(25%) and knit & miss (50%), are not signicantly different from each other in both greige and bleached
stages. The bleached and greige knit & tuck have
higher porosities than the other three single-knit structures because the presence of tuck stitches increases the
porosity of fabric due to the unique formation of a tuck
loop. Since a tuck stitch is formed when a needle takes a
new loop without clearing the previously formed loop
(held loop), the held loop together with the loop that
joins (tuck loop) are accumulated on the needles and
eventually give a bulkier structure to fabrics with more
void space within the fabric layer. Although the four
single-knit structures have quite similar fabric thickness
and weight, they dier in stitch density and porosity
because of their distinct fabric structures. A fabric with
higher porosity represents its fabric structure, encompassing more void spaces or fabric pores; in other
words, it is a rather porous structure. The knit & tuck
structure is obviously more porous than the other three
single-knit structures, as shown in Figure 4, and also
reects the result of lower stitch density, even resembling
the fabric weight and thickness. Fabric porosity is a key
factor for UVR transmission, as the incident light can
pass through the fabric pore directly.42 Therefore, the
knit & tuck fabric provides more void spaces for the
transmission of UVR through the fabric, resulting in a
lower UPF than other single-knit structures.

Porosity of double-knitted cotton fabrics

Double-knitted fabrics have signicant dierences in
porosity among the six double-knit structures

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697

(F5,24 91.179, p  0.05), greige and bleached fabrics

(F1,24 87.908, p  0.05) and an interaction exists
between structure and bleaching (F5,24 24.843,
p  0.05). The eect size of the double-knit structure
(partial eta squared 0.95) is larger than bleaching
(partial eta squared 0.786), as well as the interaction
between knit structures and bleaching (partial eta
squared 0.838). Most of the double-knit structures
have signicantly increased in porosity after bleaching,
as shown in Figure 9(b) (t17 3.35, p  0.05, twotailed), but there is no remarkable variation in porosity
for half Milano fabrics after bleaching. The results of
the post-hoc test indicate there are the largest dierences in the porosity between the greige half cardigan
(Mean 88.51, SD 0.66) and greige interlock
(Mean 85.66, SD 0.12), and also between the
bleached full cardigan (Mean 91.2, SD 0.08) and
bleached
interlock
(Mean 85.87,
SD 0.25).
Similarly, the cardigan structures comprised of tuck
stitches have higher porosity than the other doubleknit structures. Tuck stitches create more void space
for the fabrics by pushing the neighboring wales further
apart, whereas miss stitches pull the wales closer
together, which diminishes the void volume contributed
by the interstices between the yarns. The interlock and
Milano fabrics obtain the lower porosity in both greige
and bleached stages, which conformed to the results of
higher UPF among the six double-knit structures.
Signicant negative correlations between the UPF
and porosity are found in the greige single-knitted fabrics (r 0.896, p  0.05) and bleached double-knitted
fabrics (r 0.812, p  0.05), while the correlation
between the UPF and porosity for the bleached
single-knitted fabrics is insignicant (r 0.246, NS)
as indicated in Table 2. The negative correlations
obtained for both greige single-knitted fabrics and
bleached double-knitted fabrics have large strength
according to Cohens suggestion,55 and the results
agree with previous results and discussion about the
presence of tuck stitches in the fabric structures leading
to an increase in porosity but reduction in UPF.
Although UPF and porosity of the greige doubleknitted fabrics are found to be positively correlated
(r 0.546, p  0.05), the strength of this correlation is
not as large as the previous negative correlations found.
Other factors may contribute to the UPF of the greige
double-knitted fabrics, such as the beige color of greige
fabric specimens, which absorbs the UVR. Deliberation
is required in the future works for exploring other
factors.

Conclusions
The UPFs are statistically dierent among various
fabric constructions with knit, tuck and miss stitches.

Generally, the fabrics incorporated with miss stitches

possess higher UPFs than fabrics with tuck stitches.
The greige single-knitted fabrics obtain higher UPFs
after bleaching, whereas the UPF of the double-knitted
fabrics decreased after bleaching. The eect size of
bleaching for the double-knitted fabrics is greater
than that for the single-knitted fabrics; therefore, knit
structures play a more important role in the variance of
the UPF than bleaching for single-knitted fabrics. It is
assumed that shrinkage of the single-knitted fabrics
caused by bleaching has a notable inuence on the
UPF when compared with the eect of bleaching,
which removes the natural pigments and impurities.
In addition, the knit & miss (50%) fabrics and interlock
fabrics possess the highest UPF among the single-knit
and double-knit structures studied, respectively. The
micrographs provide a clear illustration of fabric construction and fabric pores among dierent knit structures, which assist the explication of the eect of the
knit, tuck and miss stitches on UVR transmission.
Fabrics with high fabric thickness and weight do not
always give better UV protection. This is proven by the
knit & tuck structure, which has a lower stitch density
and higher porosity but similar fabric weight and thickness to the other single-knit structures. Fabrics with
tuck stitches have larger fabric pores than the other
fabrics, which allow more UVR to pass through the
fabric directly.
The results of the ANOVA indicate that fabric
thickness, fabric weight and stitch density for both
single-knitted fabrics and double-knitted fabrics are signicantly inuenced by bleaching and knit structures
with large eect sizes, as well as the porosity of
double-knitted fabrics. However, the porosity of
single-knitted fabrics is signicantly aected by knit
structures, but insignicantly inuenced by bleaching.
In addition, the results of correlation analysis reveal
that fabric thickness is positively correlated to UPF
for the bleached single- and double-knitted fabrics,
while fabric weight is positively correlated to UPF for
the greige and bleached single-knitted fabrics, as well as
bleached double-knitted fabrics. Nonetheless, the UPF
of double-knitted fabrics decreased while the fabric
thickness increased after bleaching. This indicates that
bleaching has a greater impact on UPF than fabric
shrinkage for double-knitted fabrics by removing the
natural pigments and impurities acting as natural UV
absorbers. Although various knit structures have similar fabric weight and thickness, the results of UPF and
stitch density are quite contrasting. Moreover, the fabrics with tuck stitches possess relatively higher fabric
porosity but lower UPF than the other structures for
both single- and double-knitted fabrics, because tuck
stitches give a bulkier structure to fabrics with more
void space for UVR transmission. This conforms to

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the negative correlation between UPF and porosity of

the greige single-knitted fabrics and the bleached
double-knitted fabrics.
Most of the single and double-knitted fabrics studied
do not have a high UPF that can be classied to be UV
protective (below UPF 15), except the greige doubleknitted fabrics with very good protection (UPF 2539)
and the bleached Interlock fabrics with good UV protection (UPF 1524).35 Nevertheless, this paper presents a precursory study using cotton as the raw
material to investigate the impact of knit structures
and their respective structural parameters upon the
UPF. The project aimed to provide textile scientists
and technologists with a comprehensive and valuable
database for manufacturing UV protective light-weight
knitwear. Therefore, other factors contributing to the
UPF of knitted fabrics, such as ber, color, wetness,
stretchability, chemical treatments or additives applied
on fabrics, as well as the relationships between these
factors and the UPF, will be researched in the future.
The results will enable textile manufacturers, designers
and users to select the most eective combinations of
variables from a range of bers, fabric constructions
and textile wet processing agents for the production
of UV protective knitwear, and this value-added information will bring signicant benets to the world wide
textile and clothing industry.
Funding
This work was supported in part by the General Research
Fund (grant number A-SA21) from the University Grants
Committee, Hong Kong and The Hong Kong Polytechnic
University, Hong Kong.

Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank Prof. Ron Postle of the
University of New South Wales for his help and advice on
this research.

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