Recent work has shown that soil release can even be incorporated into yarn finishes

Of these mechanisms, solubilisation and emulsification of soils are controlled by detergent composition, hydrodynamic flow is controlled by washing machine design and fibre flexing is controlled by fabric construction. The textile chemist can only influence the mechanisms that involve the fibre surface, i.e. rollup of oily soil, penetration of soilfibre interface, surface abrasion and finish swelling. Finishes have been developed that provide soil release performance by taking advantage of all of these mechanisms.

Particulate soil is removed from fibres by a two-step process.

First, a thin layer of wash liquid penetrates between the particle and the fibre surface,

Enabling surfactants to adsorb onto the particle surface

(Fig. 7.1)

Then, the particle becomes solvated and is transported away from the fibre and into the bulk of the wash liquid by mechanical action.

Finishes that are hydrophilic (enhancing penetration of the fibresoil interface) with low adhesion to soil under washing conditions should improve particulate soil release. Ablative or sacrificial finishes that leave the fibre surface during washing and take the soil particles along with them can also benefit particulate soil release. For the most part however, the removal of particulate soils is determined by detergent composition and mechanical action.

Oily soils that are liquids at wash temperatures are released by a roll up mechanism (Fig. 7.2),
if the surface free energies of the fibre and oil have the relationship indicated by: where R is the resultant force of the interfacial energies between the fibre and the oil ; the fibre and the wash liquid and the oil and the wash liquid,

The angle is the angle formed at the intersection of the fibreoilwater interface (Fig.7.3). For R to be greater than 0, the contact angle must be 180 (cos = 1). This leads to

indicating that the difference between the two fibre liquid interactions must be greater than the interfacial tension of the oil with the wash liquid. Analysis of this inequality leads to the following conclusions:

conclusions:
A low fibrewash liquid interfacial energy is desired, that is a hydrophilic finish is preferred for spontaneous oil roll up. A high fibreoil interfacial energy is desired, that is the finish should also be oleophobic. A low interfacial tension between the oil and the wash liquid will favour oily soil release.

Additional finish characteristics

that should facilitate oily soil release include the ability of the finish to swell during the washing process and flexibility under mechanical action. As in particulate soil release, sacrificial finishes are expected to benefit oily soil release. The effects of fabric and yarn construction on soil release must be considered. Tightly woven fabrics will be more difficult to clean than loosely knit fabrics and yarns made from spun fibres will be more difficult to clean than yarns made from textured filament fibres because the tighter structures will have less ability to flex from mechanical action during laundering. The colour of the treated and stained fabric cannot be ignored. Very dark fabrics and very light fabrics can appear to have less soil simply from optical effects

An ester to acid ratio of ~70:30 is typical. This ratio seems to provide the proper blend of hydrophilicity and oleophobicity (hydrophiliclipophilic balance, HLB) required for a soil-release finish.

: Carbox y-based finishes

The HLB scale is often used for the preselection of surfactants and Ranges from about 0 (very hydrophobic) to nearly 20 (very hydrophilic). For good soilrelease performance, HLB values of about 15 are favoured. But this is only a rough orientation, because the important copolymer block arrangements are not expressed by these HLB values. Greater hydrophilicity would strongly reduce durability to laundering. These products are usually pad applied in combination with DMDHEU crosslinkers and provide soil release by a finish swelling mechanism (Fig. 7.5). The ease of incorporating different acrylic monomers into copolymers has led to a wide variety of available finishes.

Often a monomer such as N-methylol acrylamide that can react easily with

DMDHEU during the finish curing step is added for increased laundering durability. For these finishes to be effective, about 2.5 % solids add-on of the soilrelease polymer is necessary. Other carboxy polymers that have been used as soil-release finishes include styrenemaleic anhydride copolymers and sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (Na-CMC).

One of the earliest soil-release materials was starch, which functioned as a sacrificial treatment. Other starch- and cellulose-based products that have been used as soilrelease agents include 1. methyl cellulose, 2. ethyl cellulose, 3. Hydroxy-propyl starch, 4. Hydroxy-ethyl cellulose, 5. Hydroxy-propyl-methyl cellulose 6. and hydrolysed cellulose acetates. With some exceptions,these finishes lack the laundering durability desired in a finish expected to last the life of a garment and must be applied in combination with a binder or crosslinking agent

A great variety of materials containing oxyethylene groups have been offered as soil-release finishes. These products may contain actual polyethylene blocks or ethylene oxide reaction products with acids, alcohols, amines, phenols, etc. Binding agents may or may not be required, depending on the durability of the finish.

The structure of this polyesterether copolymer contains blocks of Poly-ethylene terephthalate and poly-oxy-ethylene terephthalate that provide a structure that has regions of hydrophilicity interspersed with hydrophobic regions that have a strong attraction for the polyester surface These products can provide extremely durable soil-release properties for polyester fabrics by either exhaust or pad applications with about 0.5 % solids addon. It is possible to exhaust apply these products during the dyeing process.

: Ethoxy-based finishes Modified Polyester condensed copolymer

A modification of the condensation copolymer compounds involves incorporating anionic character into the polymer chain by use of sulfonated monomers. The necessary hydrophilicity is provided by the sulfonated blocks Like the other polyester condensation polymers, these anionic products can be applied by exhaust or padding. The exhaustion efficiency can be significantly improved by adding small amounts of magnesium chloride to the application bath.

: Ethoxy-based finishes Modified Polyester condensed copolymer

High soil-release performance, excellent softness and combinability with fluorocarbon finishes may be achieved by special silicone/polyalkylene oxide copolymers. The silicone segments contain hydrophobic di-methyl-siloxane structures and hydrophilic silicone modifications with

ethoxylated or amino group-containing side groups.

The different hydrophiliclipophilic balance (HLB) of the poly-alkylene blocks is adjusted by the ratio of hydrophobic (polypropylene oxide) and hydrophilic (polyethylene oxide) components.

Attempting to use a fluorine-containing compound to impart hydrophilicity to a fibre surface may at first appear to be a hopeless task owing to the extreme hydrophobicity of most fluorocarbons. However, with the proper choice of copolymer blocks, this seemingly impossible feat can be accomplished. An example of the chemical structure of a successful fluorine-based soilrelease compound is shown in Fig. 7.9 and classified as a hybrid fluorocarbon of the block copolymer type.

These unique polymers have the unusual property of being hydrophobic and oleophobic in air and hydrophilic and oil-releasing during the laundering process. This dual action mechanism is illustrated in Fig. 7.10. The hydrophilic blocks are shielded by the fluorocarbon segments when dry, presenting a repellent surface. After immersion in the wash bath, the hydrophilic blocks can swell and actually reverse the interfacial characteristics of the surface, yielding the hydrophilic surface necessary for oily soil release.

Typically, these modified fluoropolymers Are pad applied to fabrics in combination with durable press crosslinking agents to increase the durability of the finish.

The higher cost of the fluorochemical soil release agents compared to the acrylic copolymers is somewhat compensated by the low add-on (~0.5 % solids add-on) required for soil-release performance. Mixtures of both polymer types provide a common compromise between efficiency and costs

Alkali and plasma treatments of polyester generate a more hydrophilic fibre surface by forming new carboxyl and hydroxyl groups. Under alkaline washing conditions the carboxyl structures become anionic carboxylate groups, giving rise to high electrostatic repulsion of the negatively charged soil particles both in pure form and those enclosed in anionic surfactant micelles.

The American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists (AATCC) has developed standardised procedures for evaluating soil-release finishes that provide a strong indication of the actual finish performance in the real world. Good finish development procedures should always include some testing with the actual soils and detergents likely to be encountered by the consumer. Evaluation of soil-release effects after washing is mostly visually done by comparison with photographic standards, but also by reflectance measurements and other instrumental techniques, including microscopy. Reflectance data using the KubelkaMunk equation correlate fairly with the oily soil content but not with residual particulate soil (which is probably partly buried within the fabric and shielded from the light path)

Oily soil-release testing A measured amount of corn oil is placed on the fabric to be tested and pressed into the fabric with a specified force. The soiled fabric is washed with a standardised detergent under specific conditions of water temperature and time in a specified washing machine.

AATCC Test Method 130 specifies all the parameters that strongly influence soil release of oily soils. After tumble drying and equilibration, the stained fabric is compared to photographic standards and rated accordingly

Fordurability testing, the fabrics are washed prior to staining in accordance with AATCC Test Method 124.

Soil reposition

AATCC Test Method 151

The fabrics to be tested are exposed can be used to estimate the degree to a soiling medium (two dry soils and of soil redeposition fabric swatches pretreated with a likely to occur during laundering. standard oily soil) during a laundering simulation with a standard detergent.

The change in reflectance of the fabric before and after the testing is an indication of the redeposition potential of the fabric.

Moisture transport Typically, near instantaneous wetting of the fabric with water ( < 1 s) is expected from nonfluorinecontaining soil-release finishes.

AATCC Test Method 79 to determine the degree of absorbency of fabrics finished with soil-release agentsduring laundering.

Too little crosslinking and the soil-release finish is not durable to multiple launderings; too much crosslinking and the finish cannot swell as much as is needed for adequate soil release.