Abstract
Lyocell-type fibers often exhibit a high tendency to fibrillate under wet abrasion conditions, and fibrillation must be diminished for a better quality of the textile product. In this study, we propose a green route for cross-linking regenerated cellulose fibers using citric acid (CA) and 1,2,3,4-butanetetracarboxylic acid (BTCA) to prevent the fibers from fibrillation. We investigated the influence of process conditions and additives on the fibrillation tendency and fiber properties. The fibrillation tendency of the cross-linked fibers highly depended on the concentration of cross-linker solution, curing temperature, and curing time. BTCA showed better cross-linking performance in comparison to CA. CA cross-linked fibers also suffer from yellowing issues due to the formation of unsaturated side products during curing. Thus, glycerol and xylitol were added during cross-linking to avoid the reaction that led to the unsaturated compound. Washing fastness tests confirmed that the cross-linking has high stability when the cross-linker concentration is 100 g/L and fibers are cured at 180 °C for 5 min. The disadvantage of the CA and BTCA cross-linked fibers was a relatively low mechanical performance. The study demonstrated that adding softener in the cross-linker solution enhanced the mechanical properties and was also able to reduce the curing temperature without deteriorating the fibrillation index of the cross-linked fibers.
Highlights
Cross-linking is a critical process for the chemical treatment of cellulosic fiber and textile production to improve its properties against fibrillation and poor wrinkle recovery.[1−4] For lyocelltype regenerated cellulosic fibers, the fibers are prone to form microfibrils on the fiber surface under high shear force in a wet or swollen state due to their highly orientated molecular structure.[5−8] The so-called fibrillation occurs due to a weak lateral cohesion between crystalline sheets in the oriented structure that eventually leads to the delamination of the fibril structure on the axial of the fiber surface.[9,10]
The performance of citric acid (CA) and butanetetracarboxylic acid (BTCA) cross-linking on the Ioncell fibers and their ability to reduce the fibrillation tendency were investigated
Fibers treated in a 100 g/L CA or BTCA solution and subsequently cured at 180 °C for 5 min resulted in best resilience of the fibers to fibrillation
Summary
The most dominating cross-linkers for cellulosic fibers are amino-based chemicals, including triazines, amides, and ureas. Among these substances, the most typical crosslinkers are 1,3,5-triacryloylhexahydro-1,3,5-triazine (TAHT) and dimethyloldihydroxyethyleneurea (DMDHEU).[3,11−14] Both cross-linkers have been reported to efficiently reduce the formation of fibrillations after the fiber is subjected to mechanical abrasion in the wet state. DMDHEU is generally a mixture of formaldehyde, glyoxal, and urea, and it is an efficient commercial cross-linker for enhancing the performance of cellulose-based fibers and textiles.[13,16] the curing process requires a higher temperature (typically 160 °C) and the fiber/textile suffers from severe strength loss after the cross-linking.[11,13] In
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