MALIC-ACID AS A NONFORMALDEHYDE DP FINISHING AGENT ACTIVATED BY BTCA AND POLYMER ADDITIVES

Hydroxysuccinic acid, better known as malic acid, is comparable to cit ric acid in availability, cost, and ecological acceptability. When act ivated by moderate amounts of butanetetracarboxylic acid (BTCA), it ca n serve as a nonyellowing formaldehyde-free durable press (DP) finishi ng agent. The DP performance and durability to alkaline laundering wer e increased by a variety of polymeric additives, such as a polyacrylam ide, a polyurethane, or a high-density emulsified polyethylene. With t he latter polymer as fabric softener, the malic acid-BTCA treatment af forded DP fabrics equivalent in whiteness to conventionally finished f abric. Moreover, the breaking strength retention in treated fabric was markedly increased by some of the additives, while tearing strength r etention remained the same. The beneficial effect of amides and of hig h-density polyethylene was also evident with a BTCA finishing treatmen t in the absence of malic acid. Since high-density polyethylenes are g enerally made emulsifiable by high temperature oxidation to introduce carboxyl, keto, and hydroxyl groups into the polymer chain, the possib ility is considered that such modified polyethylenes may be crosslinke d or grafted to cotton cellulose under the conditions of malic acid-BT CA finishing.