Green, Eco-Friendly, and Waterless Anti-Felting Process by Three Different DESs, Compared with Chlorinated Anti-Felting Process to Produce Superwash Woolen Goods

• Published in: Fibers and polymers 2024, 25(1), , pp.131-144
• Main Authors: Boostani, Bahman, Bidoki, Seyed Mansour, Fattahi, Saeid
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Chlorine; Dimensional stability; Dyeing; Felting; Fibers; Mechanical properties; Polymer Sciences; Regular Article; Sodium hypochlorite; Solubility; Wool; 섬유공학
• ISSN: 1229-9197; 1875-0052
• DOI: 10.1007/s12221-023-00411-5

Finding a suitable alternative for toxic, harmful materials and environmentally incompatible production or finishing processes is considered to be a great deal in the green textile industry. The felting resistance or anti-felting process is one of the main processes of finishing woolen goods, which ensures the dimensional stability of the product in the next washing phases, but it causes the release of several tons of chlorine-containing materials into the environment and the occurrence of irreparable ecological damage. In this study, deep eutectic solvents (DESs) named reline, oxaline, and phospholine have been synthesized and then as a green anti-felting agent for wool fibers furthermore as a non-aqueous reaction medium, successfully replaced sodium hypochlorite, which is a harmful and environmentally incompatible substance. The shrinkage rate of wool treated with hypochlorite, reline, oxaline and phospholine were 8.56, 10, 12.38, and 24.36%, respectively, compared with 32% shrinkage in untreated fibers. Observations of FESEM, FTIR, EDX, and reflection spectroscopy, furthermore the results of dyeing process, wetting time, alkaline solubility, urea bisulfite solubility, strength, and felting tests, showed that the use of DESs, alongside preserving the optimal physicochemical and mechanical properties and improves dye absorption properties, the whiteness and yellowness index of the fibers, together with many other advantages such as not consuming water, reducing wastewater and more importantly, their capability to recycling and reuse.