Improving easy care properties of cotton fabric via dual effect of ester and ionic crosslinking

To enhance the easy care finishing properties of cotton fabric along with maintaining its mechanical properties, a new route based on ionic crosslinking was employed. In this research work, pre-cationized cotton fabric was crosslinked using ammonium citrate in presence of sodium hypophosphite at 180 °C for 90 s. The effect of cationization level and ammonium citrate as well as silicon micro-emulsion softener concentrations on the performance properties of cotton fabric was determined. Results obtained show that the pre-cationization of cotton fabric having 0.09% nitrogen followed by crosslinking with 6% ammonium citrate brings about an enhancement in both dry and wet recovery angles along with a slight improvement in TS. Furthermore, the pre-cationized sample having the nitrogen content of 0.09% was characterized before and after ester crosslinking with 6% ammonium citrate (compared with an untreated sample) using thermo gravimetric analysis and Scanning Electron Microscope.