Evaluation of the influence of chemical softening on the properties of cellulose-origin textiles

Abstract

The present research has explored the influence made by chemical softening with liquid household chemical softeners on changes in the structure and hand properties of the cellulose-origin textiles manufactured from cotton, bamboo and viscose spun yarns. Effectiveness of technological treatment has been analysed via application of an experimental method based on the pulling of a disc-shaped specimen through the central nozzle of KTU-GriffTester device. Analysis of the obtained results has demonstrated that washing of textiles leads to decrease in the hand parameters thereof such as the maximum pulling force (P max ), tangent of the slope angle of the typical pulling curve H-P initial part (tgα), pulling work (A) and complex hand parameter (Q) as well as in mechanical thickness ratio (Δδ) compared to the ones of the unwashed (control) textiles independent of the fibre content and manufacturing type thereof. Hand properties of the textiles under investigation have been shown to improve after chemical softening compared to the washed textiles, but they have never been comparable to the ones of the untreated (control) textiles. Chemical softening with the cationic softeners "Wansou" (V), "Pflege Weichspuler" (P) and "Surcare" (Sr) containing 5-15% of PAM has determined the best hand of the textiles under discussion compared to other chemical softeners.