REACTION OF EPOXY COMPOUNDS WITH COTTON FABRICS IN THE PRESENCE OF SODIUM HYDROXIDE

Abstract

Cotton fabrics were treated with diglycidyl ether (Epoxide I) and with glycerin diglycidyl ether (Epoxide III) at different temperatures (20_??_80°C) in the presence of different amounts of sodium hydroxide under wet conditions, and the reaction kinetics and the relation between the wet wrinkle recovery angle and the degree of the reaction of the epoxy group were investigated.The reaction of Epoxide I obeys well first-order kinetics with respect to the epoxy concentration. The degree of the reaction increases progressively as the catalyst concentration increases. The following empirical relation was found to exist between the wet wrinkle recovery angle (W, warp + filling) obtained by the treatment and the degree of the reaction of the epoxy group (x, %) where WL is the maximum wet wrinkle recovery angle obtainable (assumed to be 320°), and W0 is the wet recovery angle of the control fabric (200°). The k′ value increases as the concentration of the catalyst is decreased and as the reaction temperature lowered. It is considered that the k′ value indicates the effectiveness of crosslink formation in the reaction of the epoxy group. The larger the k′, the more the crosslink formation.The reaction of Epoxide III, which contains a hydroxy group, does not obey the first-order kinetics. The relation between W and x can be expressed as follows except for the treatment_??_at 80°C:The A value varies with the concentration of the catalyst and the reaction temperature.