Non-formaldehyde durable press finishing of cotton fabric using acrylic acid / maleic acid copilymer

Abstract

The wrinkle recovery property of finished cotton fabric was imparted using acrylic acid (AA)/maleic acid (MA) copolymer as a crosslinking agent with sodium hypophosphite as a catalyst by pad-dry-cure method. Preliminary study was conducted to select suitable treatment system between AA/MA system and MA/AA system including suitable temperature and curing time. After that, effects of curing conditions, monomers and catalyst on dry wrinkle recovery angle, tensile strength and whiteness of the finished fabrics were examined. FT-IR spectroscopy was used to identify the presence of ester groups to confirm the ester crosslinking reaction occurred in the treated fabric. Moreover, structure and molecular weight of the copolymer were characterized using NMR and GPC analysis, respectively. The resin treatments with AA/MA system at 1:0.5 amd 1:1 mole ratios using 12%AA and 12% catalyst under the curing condition at 160 ํC for 3 min were found to be the effectiveDP finishing for 100% cotton fabric. The results of dry wrinkle recovery angle and whiteness index of the resin finished fabrics could be compared to those of the finished fabrics treated with DMDHEU. However, tensile strength retention property of the resin finished fabrics were found slightly lower.