Synthesis of Stearyl Alcohol/Polyethylene Glycol Hybrids as Water-Repellent Finishes for Cotton/Polyester Blended Fabric

Nowadays, developing and innovation of new finishing agents that are cost effective, efficient, durable, and safe for the consumer as well as the environment are greatly required by the textile manufactures. In that concern, new stearyl alcohol/polyethylene glycol (SA/PEG) hybrids were synthesized, characterized, and applied as textile finishes to impart cotton/polyester fabric with water repellency. Such hybrids were synthesized by reaction of SA with PEG of molecular weight 1000 or 4000 Da in the presence of ammonium persulfate (APS) as initiator. The optimum conditions of the synthesis reaction are: APS/PEG, 20%; PEG/SA, 15%; reaction temperature, 80 °C and reaction time, 45 min. The synthesized hybrids are self-water dispersible that form oil-in-water stable emulsions. The results indicated that treating cotton/polyester fabric with easy-care finishing formulation containing 60 g/L of dimethyloldihydroxyethylene urea as a cross-linker, and 60 g/L of any of such hybrids emulsions imparts the treated fabric with water repellency, softness, and stiffness properties. Moreover, increasing the PEG molecular weight from 1000 to 4000 Da leads to a reduction in extents of softness and contact angle along with an enhancement in stiffness of treated fabric. Furthermore, the prepared hybrids emulsions-treated fabric samples are durable up to five washing cycles. The FTIR analysis confirmed the chemical structure of the synthesized SA/PEG1000 hybrid. The transmission electron microscope (TEM) revealed that the particles size of SA/PEG4000 hybrid emulsion is in the range of 34–70 nm and reaches to 185 nm in case of the SA/PEG4000 hybrid emulsion. The surface of SA/PEG1000 hybrid emulsion-treated fabric was characterized via scanning electron microscope (SEM).