Anti-pilling and anti-static bifunctional finishing of cashmere knitted fabric based on combinatorial foaming microcoating of anionic hydrophilic polyurethane

Abstract

This paper aims at avoiding the hand-feeling deterioration of cashmere fabric during the anti-pilling and anti-static functional finishing process, based on traditional “addition” technology. A couple of flexible anionic hydrophilic polyurethanes are purposefully designed, synthesized and employed in the construction of a combinatorial microcoating on the surface of cashmere fiber to endow it with pilling resistance and static resistance. In addition, a foam coating process based on polyurethanes, endowing cashmere with pilling resistance and static resistance from bottom coating and table coating, respectively, and including the hand-feeling of treated cashmere fabric, is studied. Then, the optimal processing technology of bifunctional finishing of the anti-pilling and anti-static properties of cashmere fabric is confirmed. The results show that the pilling resistance of cashmere fabric treated by the foam coating process will be enhanced from grade 2–3 to grade 4–5 when the weight gain rate of bottom coating polyurethane reaches 1.0% (o.m.f.). Moreover, the graphene semi-embedded in the table coating membrane could decrease the static voltage half-life of cashmere fabric from 180 s to less than 2 s.