Mechanism of crosslinking tencel woven fabric for superior easy-care properties and analysis using fluorescence microscopy

A crosslinking treatment to impart easy-care properties to Tencel fabric has been investigated, using dimethyloldihydroxyethylene urea (Reaktant DH) as crosslinking agent and magnesium chloride hexahydrate as catalyst. Nonconventional treatment techniques such as "flash curing," "moist curing," "pad-batch-cure," and "pad-dry-dry steam cure" are used to facilitate better penetration of crosslinking monomer into the fiber interior. Easy-care properties of Tencel fabrics using these techniques are evaluated and compared with those treated with resin monomer using conventional pad-dry-cure process. Analysis of treated fabric using a fluorescent labeling technique and image analysis shows that nonconventional techniques significantly improve the penetration of crosslinking agent. The results further suggest that these techniques can be used to improve abrasion resistance and fabric handle of Tencel woven fabric. (c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.