Due to the presence of a high degree of disulphide cross-linkage in the A-layer of exocuticle and the fatty acids on the fiber surface, wool surface fiber has hydrophobic nature. This property accompanied by compact scale layer on the surface of wool fiber led to some problems on its processing This research focused on the application of UV/Ozone irradiation as an environmentally friendly treatment for the surface modification of wool substrate. It was applied as a pre-treatment modification prior to fluorocarbon finishing process. The application of fluorocarbons on the wool fabrics was found to have some processing problems due to the chemistry and structure of the wool fiber surface. Therefore, in this research, the use of UV/Ozone as a promising and environmentally friendly fast treatment for the surface modification of the wool substrate was studied. UV/Ozone modified wool fiber fabrics exhibited significantly better hydrophilicity performance (less than 1 second versus more than 300 seconds) in comparison to the un-modified control wool fiber fabric. UV/Ozone treatment on only one side of the fabric was limited to the surface of this side of the wool fabric, leading to hybrid functional fabrics with two different properties on each side of the fabric, such as different degrees of wettability. After UV/Ozone pretreatment, fluorocarbon finishing was applied by pad-dry-cure and print-dry-cure methods. The UV/Ozone pre-treatment, by oxidizing the topmost layer of the fibers surface, imparted better durability of the fluorocarbon treatment to repeated washings and abrasion. In an attempt to enhance the desired properties of textile substrates, hybrid fluorocarbon coating of the wool substrate together with UV/O 3 treatment was investigated. after the application of this novel method (both-sided UV/Ozone modified and then fluorochemical finish treated via the print-dry-cure process) on wool fabric, the inner side of the wool fabric, which was next to the skin, could provide desirable comforting moisture absorption for human body and protect the human skin from the negative hydrophobic effects of fluorocarbon chai moreover, the outer side of the wool fabric exhibited highly durable (to repeated washings and abrasion) water and oil repellency properties to the outside world, helping the wool fabric display better dimensional stability with less shrinkage performance after repeated washings and higher air-permeability performance without detrimental effects on the tensile properties. Key Words Wool-surface modification-UV/Ozone-fluorocarbon finishing-repellency
