STUDIES OF SOME BASIC ASPECTS IN EASY CARE COTTON FINISHING .1. NATURE OF SUBSTRATE AND METHODS OF APPLICATION

Chemical modification of cotton fabric via partial carboxymethylation and cyanoethylation was found to make substantial contribution to increase abrasion resistance, crease recovery and moisture regain. Similarly, carbamoylethylation caused enhancement in crease recovery and moisture regain, but with slight improvement in abrasion resistance. The same situation was encountered with acrylamidomethylation except that the abrasion resistance and moisture regain were marginally reduced. Variations of abrasion resistance, crease recovery and the moisture regain were interpreted in terms of nature of the substituent groups as well as changes in the physical structure of cotton cellulose accompanying the chemical modification treatment. Crosslinking of the modified cottons and the unmodified cotton with dimethylolethylene urea was performed as per the five methods, viz. paddry‐cure, pad‐cure, pad‐mild cure, moist crosslinking, and pad‐wet‐batch methods. Of these methods the pad‐dry‐cure method and the pad‐wet‐batch method were found quite adequate for modified cottons. With the exception of acrylamidomethylated cotton, the modified cottons retain much higher abrasion resistance and moisture regain than the unmodified couton at the same level of crease recovery. Of particular interest were the results obtained with partially carboxymethylated cotton when the pad‐wet‐batch method was applied. © 1979 Hüthig & Wepf Verlag, Basel