Breathability
ability of fabric to transfer moisture
Breathability of fabric is the ability of a fabric to allow moisture vapor to be transmitted through the material.
Mechanism
Air permeability is the ability of a fabric to allow air to pass through it. While air permeable fabrics tend to have relatively high moisture vapor transmission, it is not necessary to be air permeable to be breathable.
Moisture Vapor Transfer (MVT) in waterproof fabrics occurs by two processes:
Physical: Hydrophobic (water fearing) are waterproof, yet steam permeable -microporous coatings or laminations have pores that are so small that liquid water cannot go through. However, vapor water molecules are many times smaller than the liquid state and can pass through these “micro pores”.
Chemical: Hydrophilic (water loving) / non-porous lamination or coating move moisture by chemical diffusion. The water molecule is positively charged and the hydrophilic PU is negatively charged, attracting the water through the intermolecular gaps of the PU. Because the ionic bond is relatively weak, the water then gets pushed through the gaps until the water vapor passes all the way through.
Driving Force is the difference in the level of heat and humidity on one side of the material compared to the other side. Also known as the Differential Pressure. By the second law of thermodynamics moisture will move towards dry.
The public source identifies “Breathability” as ability of fabric to transfer moisture. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Breathability, ability and fabric.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3457839. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Breathability” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.