Abstract

In this paper, the comprehensive effects of environmental temperature and time on the moisture permeability of natural sheepskin and regenerated leather were compared and analysed by using MATLAB fitting and least square method and their regression equations were constructed respectively. The microstructure comparison shows that both natural and recycled leathers are composed of protein fibres, which have many hydrophilic groups in their chains, therefore both have good moisture permeability which varies significantly with temperature. The moisture permeability of regenerated leather is slightly weaker than that of natural sheepskin leather. The reason is that latex molecules fill between the collagen fibres, which reduces the gaps through which water vapour can pass, while the papillary layer of natural sheepskin has a tight structure and has a wicking effect that regenerated leather does not.