One-step Easy-Care and Softening Finishing of Knitted Cotton Fabric

Abstract

Cotton is a natural fiber which has a tendency to wrinkle due to its perfect absorbancy properties. Nowadays, people prefer to use easy-care fabrics, so a lot of research has been done about this issue since the 1940s. In most researches, carboxymethylation and causticization processes are applied to bleached or semi-bleached cotton fabric, yet in this project dyed cotton fabric is used. Factories are applying resin finishing which is expensive, decreases fabric strength, increases stiffness of fabric so handle affected poorly from this application. Formaldehyde-based chemistries were used for increase wrinkle recovery performance of fabrics before, but formaldehyde is a suspicious carcinogenic chemical very dangerous for human health. Currently, DMDHEU and BTCA are the most well-known crosslinking chemical materials in wrinkle-free finishing, but in this study, cationic silicone softener was used as the crosslinker, and its effect on crease resistance was investigated. In the study, after the dyed cotton fabrics were given anionic character by applying causticization with Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) and carboxymethylation processes with Sodium Chloroacetate (SCA), respectively, three different concentrations of cationic silicone were applied with the pad-dry-cure method for the cross-linking process. Then, wrinkle recovery angle (WRA) measurements were performed on crosslinked cotton fabrics in order to understand the interaction between causticization and crosslinking; and determine the better causticization and crosslinking levels that offer highest fabric performance. Experimental results showed that the best WRA results were observed at 10% NaOH, 0.5M SCA. Same SCA and softener concentration with 15% NaOH has adverse effect compared to 5% and 10% NaOH levels.