Howard R Guest

New Developments in Epoxide Wash-Wear Finishes for Cotton

A study has been made of a number of epoxides of potential and current utility for the treatment of cotton to produce crease recovery and wash-and-wear properties. The prop erties imparted to cotton by these products vary greatly with respect to the color of the fabric, the retention of strength for a given level of crease recovery, the rate of hydrolysis of the epoxide in the treating bath, etc. It is in fact unreasonable to consider all epoxides as a class. since they differ as much from one another as they do from the conventional nitrogen-containing finishes. In general, however, they demonstrate resistance to chlorine retention and a high level of durability to all types of laundering, including that used by commercial launclries. One of the most promising epoxides examined was vinylcyclohexene dioxide, which imparted a desirable combination of properties to cotton when used alone or in 2: 1 blends with most commercially used nitrogenous resins. Some treatments of cotton were performed with 1,1,3-tris-(2,3-epoxypropoxy)-hutane, This tri-epoxide contains an acid-labile acetal linkage, which can be readily hydrolyzed. The properties of cotton treated with this epoxide were examined before and after hy drolysis. and provided confirmatory evidence for the important role of cross-linking in improving the properties of cellulose with resin treatments.