Study On The Influence Of Environmental Factors On The Properties Of Anti-creasing Cotton Fabrics

As a kind of natural fiber,cotton fiber has been playing an important role in the textile industry for its good hygroscopicity and soft hand.However,the disadvantages of cotton fabric,such as poor elasticity,easy to wrinkle and after washing the need for ironing,seriously affect its aesthetic feeling and comfort.Therefore,the anti-creasing finishing of cotton fabric becomes very important.1,2,3,4-Butanetetracarboxylic acid(BTCA)is a kind of formaldehyde free anti-creasing finishing agent for cotton fabric,which can form a stable cross-linked structure in the fiber through esterification reaction with the hydroxyl group on the cellulose macromolecular chain.Thus,the cotton fabric is endowed with good anti-creasing performance.In the process of daily use and washing,it is inevitable that different environmental factors will affect the appearance and shape retention of cotton fabric,thus affecting its' wearability.In this paper,we simulated the external environmental conditions that may be experienced by the anti-creasing cotton fabric when it was taken.Through the wrinkle recovery angle test,tensile strength test,scanning electron microscopy(SEM),infrared spectroscopy(FT-IR),X-ray diffraction(XRD),thermogravimetry(TG)and other different analysis and characterization,we explored the effects of solar radiation,sweat immersion,daily washing,environmental temperature and humidity on the macroscopic properties and microstructure of the anti-creasing cotton fabric.Firstly,the effects of sunlight irradiation and sweat immersion on the shape retention of anti-creasing cotton fabric were studied.The wrinkle recovery angle of anti-creasing cotton fabric decreased about 15% after being treated by different ways of sunlight irradiation or sweat immersion,which had little effect on its strength.The fibers on the surface of the fabric are damaged,some of them are chapped,and many of them are broken.Before and after treatment,the infrared characteristic absorption peak and the crystal structure of the fabric did not change significantly,but the thermal stability of the samples was decreased.Secondly,the influence of washing treatment on the shape retention of anti-creasing cotton fabric was studied.Under the condition of different washing temperature and different washing auxiliaries,the surface fiber of the fabric is damaged seriously,the number of broken fibers is increased,and the wrinkle recovery angle of the fabric is decreased to a large extent.After repeated washing at high temperature,the surface fiber of the fabric was damaged seriously,the wrinkle recovery angle of the sample decreased by about 50%,but the strength damage was relatively low.In addition,the infrared characteristic peak of the treated fabric is weakened,the cross-linking structure formed on the anti-creasing cotton fiber is damaged to a large extent,the crystallinity of the treated fabric is decreased,and the thermal stability is damaged greatly,among which the residual mass of thermal decomposition of the fabric after composite washing treatment is reduced by 75%.Finally,the damage of cotton fabric under different temperature and humidity was studied.At low temperature or humidity environment,the shape retention property of the anti-creasing cotton fabrics was less affected,the wrinkle recovery angle is about 7% lower than that of the untreated sample,but the tensile strength of the sample does not change greatly,and the fiber structure and crystal morphology of the treated sample are not affected;in the higher temperature and humidity environment,the wrinkle recovery angle of the anti-creasing cotton fabric was reduced by 50% compared with the untreated cotton fabric.The strength of the fabric was damaged,and the infrared characteristic absorption peak of the sample at 1730cm-1 was reduced,indicating that the cross-linking structure of the anti-creasing fabric was partially damaged,and the crystal structure of the treated fabric and its thermal stability were less affected.Through the simulation of the possible external wearing environment of the anti-creasing cotton fabric,the basic data obtained from the treatment of the cotton fabric provide people with a full understanding of the impact of the external environment on the shape retention performance of the anti-creasing cotton fabric,and a better data reference and implementation standard for the use,washing and maintenance of the anti-creasing cotton fabric.