Crease-Resistant Cloth from Partially Carboxymethylated Cotton

Abstract

A method of applying resin treatments to the acid form of partially carboxymethylated cot ton cloth to produce crease-resistance has been developed. The acidity of the carboxyl group and the higher swellability are advantageous for overcoming two difficulties met in the usual methods of producing crease-resistant cotton cloth by resin treatment. The presence of the acid carboxyl group supplies a built-in catalyst, making the addition of catalyst unnecessary, in this way avoiding the prepolymerization of resin baths which contain added catalysts. The high swellability of the modified cotton allows easier penetration of the resin-formers and larger pickup of resin, with the production of cloth of equivalent crease-resistance, of superior hand and abra sion-resistance, and better in most other physical properties, in comparison with the unmodified resin-treated cloth. The process of carboxymethylation, which consists of impregnating cotton cloth with a weak solution of monochloroacetic acid followed by treatment with strong sodium hydroxide, is com mercially feasible and can be carried out on ordinary textile equipment.