Functional finishing of textiles has been in great demand since the last two decades in domestic and industrial applications. Mosquito repellent textiles are one of the most demanded functional finished textiles in the current market.
The investigation of this research is to study the combined effect of fragrance and mosquito repellant property on cotton fabric by using Lavender and Citronella essential oil by means of nano encapsulation. Nano encapsulated essential oil prepared via sol gel process and is applied on cotton fabric through nip-pad-dry method. The treated fabric is found to have good mosquito repellant property with reasonable wash durability up to five domestic washes. The aroma release of transformed tissue and washed fabric was estimated by chromatography/mass spectrometry of head space (HS-GC/MS) by measuring the concentration of the main components in tissue treated with essential oils. The results reveal that in each wash cycle, the essential oil is released from the treated fabric as the concentration of chemical compounds decreases gradually. A panel assessment and a field trial of mosquito repellant property have been done to validate the HS –GC/ MS study.