The effect of a novel booster (bisulfate adduct of polyisocyanate) on fluorocarbon chain re-orientation and substrate properties: Synthesis and finishing

This paper describes the fluorocarbon treatment of cotton fabric as a cellulosic substrate co-applied by a novel booster (bisulfate adduct of polyisocyanate) to improve its performance and repellent properties on the fabrics. The booster was synthesized from isocyanate groups blocked with sodium bisulfite and characterized by Fourier-transformed infrared analysis (FT-IR). The repellent properties of the cotton fabrics treated with fluorocarbon or fluorocarbon-booster were compared by FT-IR spectroscopy, water contact angle and 3M water repellency test before and after washing. The results indicated that bisulfate adduct of diisocyanate could be considered as a novel booster to create correct surface interface to maintain fluorocarbon performance without heat treatment and change the fabric properties from water repellency to water and oil repellency due to the decrease of the surface tension from 33 to 28.7 mN/m. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.