Dependence of soiling and soil release of easy care cotton on factors‐controlling the finishing treatment

The conventional pad‐dry‐cure method was used for effecting crosslinking of cotton with N‐methylol finishing agents under different conditions. Factors studied include nature and concentration of finishing agent and softener, type and concentration of catalyst, and curing temperatures. Variation of soiling and soil release characteristics of crosslinked cotton with these factors were investigated. The effect of finishing agent on aqueous soiling followed the order: Carbamate reactant‐fabric > Dimethylolethylene urea‐fabric > Dimethyloldihydroxyethylene urea‐fabric > Untreated fabric > Modified triazinone‐fabric ≥ Modified ethylene urea‐fabric. On the other hand, the effect of these finishing agents was to enhance the susceptibility of the fabric to oily soiling. Nevertheless, nature of the finishing agent governed the magnitude of this enhancement. Aqueous and oily soil release depended also upon the nature of finishing agent, soiling increased and soil release decreased by increasing finishing agent concentration. Type of catalyst exerted a considerable influence on aqueous and oily soil release without significantly affecting the degree of soiling. For aqueous soil release, the following order was found: Al2(SO4)3 · 18H2O > MgCl2 · 6H2O > urea nitrate > ZnCl2 · 6H2O > Zn(NO3)2 · 6H2O > urea phosphate > urea oxalate > NH4 · H2PO4 ≥ NH4Cl. A reverse order held good for oily soil release. Both aqueous and oily soil release were impaired by increasing catalyst concentration. Similarly, nature and concentration of the softener had no striking effect on soiling while they did on soil release. Raising the curing temperature from 80 to 140°C caused substantial reduction in case of soil removal of urea salts catalyzed‐crosslinked cotton samples while having the degree of soiling practically intact.