Chemical Softeners

Chemical Softeners
Chemical softeners have gained great importance in finishing; almost no piece of textile leaves the production facilities without being treated with a softener. Softening treatment is to give the textiles the desired handle, make further processing easier and improve the handling properties. A nice, soft handle is often the decisive criterion for buying a textile and is therefore of most vital importance for marketing many textiles product.

Objectives of chemical softening

A Softener's main purpose is to improve the aesthetic properties of textiles It gives the fabric the desired handle; usually with imaginative descriptions such as soft, full, super soft, smooth, elastic, firm, dry, sludgy etc. It positively influences the technological properties such as antistatic, hydrophilic properties, elasticity, sewability, abrasion resistance etc. It gives synthetic fibres a certain degree of natural feeling and improve the handling properties through secondary effects (antistatic, smoothness, moisture regulation etc.).

Desirable properties of textile Softeners

Easy handling (liquid, pump able, stable dilution) Good compatibility to chemicals, easy to combine Stable to high temperatures, not volatile by Water Vapour No yellowing No effect on fastnesses No colour shade changes Leaves no deposits on rollers Regular and complete bath exhaust Spray able Not toxic, not caustic, not corrosive Easily biodegradable Dermatologically harmless No restriction for transport and storing (flash point)

Classification of textile softeners according to their Ionogenity

Ionic Activity Nonionic Electric Charge No charge

Ionic
Cationic Pseudo Cationic Quaternary Amphoteric

Negative Charge
Positive Charge At acid pH slightly cationic Cationic (no matter of pH) Depending on the pH

Mechanisms of the softening effect

Softeners provide their main effects on the surface of the fibres. Small softener molecules, in addition, penetrate the fibre and provide an internal plasticisation of the fibre forming polymer by reducing of the glass transition temperature Tg. The physical arrangement of the usual softener molecules on the fibre surface is important . It depends on the ionic nature of the softener molecule and the relative hydrophobicity of the fibre surface.

Cationic Softener
Cationic softeners have the best softness and are reasonably durable to laundering. They can be applied by exhaustion to all fibres from a high liquor to goods ratio bath and they provide a hydrophobic surface and poor rewetting properties. They are usually not compatible with anionic products (precipitation of insoluble adducts). Cationic softeners attract soil, may cause yellowing upon exposure to high temperatures and may adversely affect the light fastness of direct and reactive dyes. Inherent ecological disadvantages of many conventional (unmodified) quaternary ammonium compounds (quaternaries) are fish toxicity and poor biodegradability. But they are easily removed from waste water by adsorption and by precipitation with anionic compounds.

Mechanism of the softening effect of Cationic softeners

Cationic softeners orient themselves with their positively charged ends toward the partially negatively charged fibre (zeta potential), creating a new surface of hydrophobic carbon chains that provide the characteristic excellent softening and lubricity seen with cationic softeners.

Anionic Softeners
Anionic softeners are heat stable at normal textile processing temperatures and compatible with other components of dye and bleach baths. They can easily be washed off and provide strong antistatic effects and good rewetting properties because their anionic groups are oriented outward and are surrounded by a thick hydration layer. They are often used for special applications, such as medical textiles, or in combination with anionic fluorescent brightening agents.

Mechanism of the softening effect of Anionic Softeners

Anionic softeners, orient themselves with their negatively charged ends repelled away from the negatively charged fibre surface. This leads to higher hydrophilicity, but less softening than with cationic softeners.

Amphoteric Softeners
They have good softening effects, low permanence to washing and high antistatic effects (because of their strong ionic character). They have fewer ecological problems than similar cationic products.

Nonionic softeners
Nonionic softeners do not carry any electrical charge and therefore do not possess any distinctive substantivity. Such products are applied by means of forced application i.e. usually in padding mangle procedures. Non-ionic softeners can be combined universally, are stable to temperature and do not yellow. This is the reason why this product class is perfect for finishing optically brightened high-white articles.

Mechanism of the softening effect of Nonionic Softeners

The orientation of nonionic softeners depends on the nature of the fibre surface, with the hydrophilic portion of the softener being attracted to hydrophilic surfaces and the hydrophobic portion being attracted to hydrophobic surfaces.

Non-ionic softeners based on polyethylene

Polyethylene can be modified by air oxidation in the melt at high pressure to add hydrophilic character (mainly carboxylic acid groups). Emulsification in the presence of alkali will provide higher quality, more stable products. They show high lubricity (reduced surface friction) that is not durable to dry cleaning, they are stable to extreme pH conditions and heat at normal textile processing conditions, and are reasonably priced and compatible with most textile chemicals.

Ethoxylated non-ionic softeners

Polyglycol ethers are synthesized by the addition of ethylene oxide to fatty alcohols, carboxylic acids, esters, amides or amines . They are surfactants and often used as antistatic agents and as components of fiber spin finishes. Their main characteristics are relatively high substantivity and hydrophilicity, non yellowing and sometimes a low softening effect and lubricity, and a potential for foaming during processing.

Silicone softeners
Amino functional silicones have a big importance to textile softening companies. Their surface smoothening and softening properties are above all other product groups. Micro and semi-micro emulsions can be made with specially selected emulsifying recipes using amino-functional silicones. They offer a number of advantages which ,are totally in keeping for modern textile finishing. The low particle size (micro emulsions <O.O1 micron) semi micro emulsions ~ 0 . 1 micron) allow for the additives to penetrate into the fiber core and in this way allow for an excellent product distribution of the micro emulsion. Silicone micro emulsions give textiles an excellent inner soft. They provide very high softness, special unique hand, high lubricity, good sewability, elastic resilience, crease recovery, abrasion resistance and tear strength.

Silicone softeners
They show good temperature stability and durability, with a high degree of permanence for those products that form cross linked films and a range of properties from hydrophobic to hydrophilic. Depending on their method of synthesis, silicone softeners can contain variable amounts of volatile siloxane oligomers. Together with volatile emulsifiers these oligomers can cause pollution problems in the waste air from tenter frames. In textile finishing, silicones are also used as water repellents, elastomeric finishes, coatings and as defoamers.

Compatibility and combinability

Softener finishes are often combined with easy care and antistatic treatments. As a rule of thumb, hydrophobic softeners cause an extra soft hand where as hydrophilic softeners bring about some fullness. In combination with fluorocarbons, most softeners reduce oil repellency. Some ionic, surface active and silicone free softeners are not compatible with water repellents. Since softeners are usually also excellent fiber lubricants, softening finishes often give poor antipilling and slippage properties.

Properties of emulsions and micro emulsions

Particulars of and troubleshooting for softening finishes

Emulsion stability: When the stability of a normal (not micro-) emulsion is very high in an exhaust treatment, then the softening effect decreases. An emulsion of moderate stability gives the best results, probably because small drops of the emulsified softener can exhaust to the fiber surface. Poor emulsion stability causes stains. Reactive softeners: Some softeners have functional groups that can react with the corresponding groups of some fibres, The result is a very durable finish, combined with the typical advantages and disadvantages of this crosslinking chemistry.

Particulars of and troubleshooting for softening finishes

Softeners and thermo-migration of dyes: Many hydrophobic softeners are solvents for disperse dyes. Therefore they increase thermo-migration of the dyes and the staining of adjacent yarns (bleeding). The crock fastness and wash fastness of the fabric decrease as the dyes migrate to the fiber surface. Volatility: Some softeners are volatile or contain volatile components. During drying, heat setting or curing these volatile components can condense on cooler areas of the ovens and then drop back onto the fabric, causing spots. Heating the top of the ovens can help prevent this problem.

Particulars of and troubleshooting for softening finishes

Yellowing: This problem arises especially with undyed fabrics. It can be caused by the oxidation of cationic softeners or amino-modified silicones or by the ionogen attraction of cationic softeners and anionic fluorescent brighteners (extinguishing the fluorescence by salt formation). Dispersing agents and product selection are helpful to reduce this effect. Mechanical softening: Softening effects can be gained on some fabrics without chemicals, only by mechanical treatment, for example washing or in a tumbler or with high pressure water jets.

Correlation between molecule structure and application technical properties

The Kawabata Evaluation System (KES

The Kawabata Evaluation System (KES) is used to make objective measurements of hand properties. The KES instruments measure mechanical properties that correspond to the fundamental deformation of fabrics in hand manipulation. The Kawabata system of instruments, featured in the fabric hand laboratory, measures properties of textile fabrics and predicts the aesthetic qualities perceived by human touch. The Kawabata Evaluation System (KES) includes five highly sensitive instruments that measure fabric bending, shearing, tensile and compressive stiffness, as well as the smoothness and frictional properties of a fabric surface. This evaluation can include measurement of the transient heat transfer properties associated with the sensation of coolness generated when fabrics contact the skin during wear.

The Kawabata Evaluation System (KES)

KES provides a unique capability, not only to predict human response, but also to provide an understanding of how the variables of fiber, yarn, fabric construction and finish contribute to the perception of softness. A standard specimen size of 20 x 20 cm is used in three replications. All measurements are directional, except for compression, and are made in both the lengthwise direction, and in the crosswise direction of the sample. Appropriate instrument settings are used for the material being tested

Handle-O-Meter
The Handle-O-Meter is another method in which different kinds of deformation have a simultaneous effect on the sample, resulting in a total value for the hand. A rectangular sample of maximum 20 cm or 8 inches width is pushed by a blade into a variable slit. Maximum resistance force on the blade is registered, giving a value that depends on the flex rigidity of the sample and the frictional resistance on the corner of the slit. Both the surface smoothness and the compressibility are included in the measurement.

Handle-O-Meter
The mean values of both sides of the fabric in lengthwise and crosswise directions are determined and recorded. In other relatively simple methods the resistance is measured, when a textile sample is drawn through a ring aperture or a nozzle. The measured resistance force consists of components of the flexural rigidity, the surface friction, the shear rigidity and the compressibility.