Abstract
Fabrics treated with fluoroalkyl acrylate (FA)/polyethylene glycol methacrylate (PEGMA) copolymers were stained with oily soil containing particulate soil. After laundering the fabrics, soil release (SR) efficiency was determined based on residual content. For a soil mixture of carbon black and triolein, FA content of polymer increased, making it inceasingly farder for soil to adhere to the fabrics. Soil was easily removed by laundering. On comparing FA/PEGMA with FA/stearyl acrylate (StA) copolymers of the same FA content, soil adhesion was essentially the same in all cases, but SR efficiency of FA/PEGMA exceeded that of FA/StA copolymers. SR efficiency is thus enhanced by: (1) soil-repellent effect from low surface-free energy of FA and (2) soil-releaseing effect from structural transformation. The hydrophilic structure, dominated by fluoroalkyl groups in air, is transformed into a hydrophilic structure dominated by hydrophilic groups in water (flip-flop mechanism).
We will discuss the effects of fabric treatment and polarity of oily soil later in this paper.
