Development of functional polymers that improve pilling values in viscose, cotton and polyester fabrics and give soft hand to fabrics

Pilling as one of the most important quality problems being encountered in textile industry, is defined as a mechanically originated fabric defect consisting of a series of roughly spherical masses of entangled fibers. Numerous studies have been reported in order to figure out the factors causing this unwanted problem thoroughly, determine the pilling intensity by applying distinct methods and ameliorate the pilling degrees of fabrics. This study aims at lowering the pilling tendency of fabrics favored by chemical finishing methods. This method is based on application of textile auxiliary chemicals onto fabrics. In order to reach this goal, anti-pilling polymers were synthesized, characterized and applied onto various fabrics. These polymers are poli(N-vinylimidazole, poly(N-vinylcaprolactam), poli(N-vinylpyrrolidone) and polyvinyl-1,2,4-triazole which were all synthesized by free radical polimerization method. FT-IR, NMR and elementel analysis devices were used in order to characterize the polymers. Solutions of polyethylene glycol-lactic acid, poli(N-vinylimidazole-ethylene glycol dimethacrylate, N-vinylpyrrolidone-ethylene glycol dimethacrylate, N-vinylpyrrolidone-N-isopropyl acrylamide were prepared and their solutions were applied onto fabrics. During application, fabrics are cured on ram machine under high temperatures. Initial prediction was that chemicals would provide a film on fabrics surface and lead to pilling suppression. The whole phenomena has been further investigated in detail to prove this initial hyptothesis. Natural/synthetic blend fabrics consisting of staple fibres result in unsatisfactory pilling degrees and cause inconveniences in pilling suppression. Consequently, blended fabrics with pilling degrees of approximately 2-3 on a scale of 5 have been chosen. An improvement of 1.5-2 pilling degrees was obtained by application of majority of polymers. Conventional anti-pilling polymers knowingly decrease hydrophilicity of the fabrics. However, functional polymers used in this study did not cause drop in hydrophilicity. On the contrary, they improved the hydrophilicity values. Other important fabric characteristics such as hand, yellowing and whiteness were also investigated with no negative impact observed. As a result, synthesized and characterized polymers could be applied as an effective anti-pilling chemicals.