Taking Cotton Fabric Formaldehyde Release Regularity

The release of formaldehyde from clothing fabrics such as durable press (DP) treated fabrics is a problem for human health and safety because formaldehyde is suspected to be carcinogenic. The short-term effects of exposure to formaldehyde include irritation of eyes and nose, rashes and headaches. In this paper, releasing characteristics of formaldehyde from the durable press fabrics and the dyed cotton fabric in the aqueous medium was investigated and assessed.Three durable press (DP) agents and a fixing agent were first selected to prepare for the DP finished cotton fabrics and the dyed cotton fabrics using regular process. And then, the formaldehyde releasing from the dyed and finished cotton fabrics was carried out in acidic and alkaline aqueous medium, respectively. Two factors effecting formaldehyde releasing including the nature of the aqueous medium (pH, temperature and the ratio of solution volume to the weight of fabric) and treating process parameters for cotton fabrics (concentration of DP agent or fixing agent, treating temperature and time, softeners or additives, etc.) were examined with respect to initial releasing rate, the average releasing rate, the balance releasing amount (or maximum releasing amount, etc.) Moreover, the formaldehyde releasing from the dyed and finished cotton fabrics was characterized by using the subsection method and first order derivative method, respectively.The results indicated that formaldehyde could be released from the two kinds fabrics in the pH=5.0 and pH=8.0 aqueous medium. In general, formaldehyde releasing from the dyed and finished cotton fabrics consisted of three stages, namely initial stage, slow releasing and balance releasing stage. And the formaldehyde releasing behavior can be described through the exponent function model. The DP finished cotton fabric released formaldehyde more easily in the alkaline aqueous solution than the acidic aqueous solution. On the contrary, the dyed cotton fabric showed the reversed releasing trend. Moreover, the two fabric samples released low formaldehyde in the artificial sweats than in the aqueous solutions at the same condition. The temperature of the aqueous medium can promote the formaldehyde release from two treated fabrics. Increasing concentration of DP agent or fixing agent caused the high releasing of formaldehyde release from two treated fabrics. More importantly, it is found that the DP finished fabrics containing the softeners or additives could release more formaldehyde in acidic and alkaline aqueous medium.