A cleaner production process for high performance cotton fabrics

Abstract

High performance cotton fabrics with color, luster and wrinkle resistance are manufactured by three steps. The coloration, wrinkle resistance and luster finishing consume a large number of resources, and generate a huge amount of colored wastewater. The present research reports a cleaner process for dyeing, wrinkle resistance and luster finishing of cotton fabrics. Cotton fabrics were dyed at 35 °C for 15 h with multifunctional reactive dye solutions of high concentrations. Scanning electron microscope images show the fiber cross sections became circular like the mercerized cotton fibers, and the fabrics exhibited nice luster and wrinkle resistant ability. For fabrics with light and middle color, a certain amount of 1,3,5-triacryloyhexahydro-1,3,5-triazine was added into the dye liquor to make the fiber cross section become circular and to make the wrinkle recovery angle reach more than 260° to obtain good wrinkle resistant ability. When the padded fabrics were steamed at 102 °C for 3 min instead of fixing at 35 °C for 15 h, the wrinkle recovery angle also reached 266°. The breaking strength of dyed fabrics decreased with increasing the dye and 1,3,5-triacryloyhexahydro-1,3,5-triazine concentrations. The enhancement of wrinkle resistance of dyed fabrics is due to the crosslink effect of the dye molecules with cellulose macromolecules. This one-step process will save a significant amount of energy and water, and reduce the effluent discharged.