Development of multifunctional cotton using fluorocarbon resin

Anil Kumar Jain,Adane Haile,Addisu Ferede Tesema

doi:10.1177/2515221118786052

Anil Kumar Jain, Adane Haile + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/2515221118786052

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Abstract

An attempt has been made to develop multifunctional cotton fabric, possessing water repellent, stain repellent, shrink resistance and quick dry properties using fluorocarbon resin. The hydrophobicity of cotton fabric was determined by carrying out water repellency test, taking scanning electron microscopic photographs and measuring water contact angle. The durability of hydrophobicity of cotton was tested till 20 washes and found satisfactory. Oil repellency was determined employing hydrocarbons resistance test. The air permeability of cotton fabric was also determined keeping in view the impact on breathability of treated cotton and was found quite good. The untreated and treated cotton fabric was subjected to repeated domestic laundry condition, and shrinkage was measured, which indicated excellent shrink resistance behaviour because of its water repelling characteristic. This hydrophobicity of cotton also added to its quick dry behaviour even at low temperature and high relative humidity. The physical properties of treated dyed cotton fabric samples were compared with untreated, and no significant changes were observed in colour fastness to washing, rubbing, perspiration and light. The tensile and tear strength showed good retention even at higher concentration of fluorocarbon resin. This work is of great industrial importance for textile products used in home textiles. The textile industry can fetch more export earnings by doing multiple value addition using the same chemical. The work reported in the literature is about using fluorocarbon and developing water- and oil-repellent fabrics. In the present work, apart from water and oil repellency, shrink resistance and quick dry behaviour of cotton textile has also been established using same fluorocarbon because of hydrophobicity imparted to cotton.

Highlights

Various methods have been reported in the literature to get water-repellent cotton.[1,2,3,4] Among these, the most common method is to use fluorocarbon, which impart both water and oil repellency (OR) to cotton because of its ease of application
In order to make cotton hydrophobic, the bleached cotton samples were treated with various concentration of fluorocarbon emulsion along with the catalyst
After 10 and 20 washes, a rating of 90 and 80, respectively, was obtained showing that there was slight random wetting of upper surface with water at spray point only. This clearly indicates that hydrophobicity of cotton fabric was maintained even after 20 washes at almost all concentrations of fluorocarbon

Summary

Introduction

Various methods have been reported in the literature to get water-repellent cotton.[1,2,3,4] Among these, the most common method is to use fluorocarbon, which impart both water and oil repellency (OR) to cotton because of its ease of application. Apart from this, fluorine has got a unique characteristic of lowering down the surface energy and making cotton fabric both water and oil repellent.[5,6]. Any liquid drop on the fibre surface will have two types of interaction, namely the internal cohesive interaction within the liquid and the adhesive interaction between the liquid and the fibre surface. The liquid will spread only when the interaction with fibre surface is more than the cohesive interaction within the liquid. The internal cohesive interaction or surface tension of water is 73 mN/m

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