Article Highlights• Removal of unpleasant odor is important in the production of fresh artificial leather • The use of essential oil is an expensive solution since high concentrations are needed • The use of synthetic fragrance combined with paraffin oil is an effective solution • Fragrance concentration and mixture are optimized to be efficient and economical Abstract Usually, new artificial leather items are very smelly because they have been created using numerous chemicals. Their full smell remains until they become old enough. Removal of unpleasant chemical odor is important to preserve the safety and health at workplaces, to meet the demands of consumers and to develop marketing strategies. In this work, we focus on studying odor abatement using natural and synthetic fragrances. We have found that, in well-defined conditions, both types of fragrances efficiently hide the chemical odor. However, the use of the synthetic one combined with paraffin oil was more effective and cheaper.Artificial leather is generally a coated textile substrate made by covering a textile fabric base with a soft polyurethane (PU) or polyvinyl chloride (PVC) layer. This leather-like fabric is used in many industries such as clothing, footwear, automotive and upholstery and it is increasingly demanded to substitute natural leather which is costly and available in irregular pieces [1].Certainly, leather-like materials are cost effective, more versatile and animal-friendly. However, both PU and PVC artificial leather have commonly been associated with an unpleasant chemical odor, which comes out during the coating at high temperature, from evolved volatile organic compounds like hydrogen chloride, substituted benzenes, aldehydes and phthalic anhydride [2-4]. These chemicals dissipate over time, but their smells don't go away completely.

Due to recent developments in composite formulations and coating technology, polyvinyl chloride (PVC)-coated textiles are becoming increasingly popular in the textile industry. The most critical properties of PVC-coated textiles are their mechanical characteristics and morphological properties because they control their cost well. This study focuses on the impact of filler diameter and content on the mechanical properties of the PVC foam layer used for coated textiles stuffed with calcium carbonate (CaCO3). The mechanical properties of the PVC foamed layer (breaking load, tearing strength and elongation at break) were studied. The applied contents were found to significantly influence the mechanical properties of the PVC foamed layer. The addition of CaCO3 fillers improved their mechanical properties. The results also showed that mechanical properties were enhanced using calcium carbonate with different particle sizes; the smallest particle size gave the highest mechanical resistance. The morphology of the different samples showed that the employment of calcium carbonate increases foam formation. A higher CaCO3 content can deteriorate the PVC foam layer structure. Using a small filler particle diameter decreased pore sizes and ameliorated the regularity in pore size distribution.

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