GB1080284A - Treatment of textile materials and films - Google Patents

Abstract

Films and textile materials comprising a major proportion of hydrophobic polymeric material, e.g. polyethylene, polypropylene, nylon, polyethylene terephthalate, polymers and copolymers of acrylonitrile and cellulose triacetate, are rendered antistatic by treating them with a polymeric substance containing at least one reactive -OH, >NH or -SH group and a substance capable of giving rise to divinyl sulphoxide or a substituted divinyl sulphoxide, and generating the divinyl sulphoxide or substituted divinyl sulphoxide and reacting it with the polymeric substance. The term "a substituted divinyl sulphoxide" refers to compounds having the formula SO(CR3=CHR4)2 in which R3 and R4 are lower alkyl groups containing 1-3 carbon atoms and may be the same or different or one of R3 and R4 is a lower alkyl group and the other is hydrogen. The substances giving rise to divinyl sulphoxide or a substituted divinyl sulphoxide may have the formula SO(CHR1CHR2 OY)2 in which R1 and R2 are hydrogen or lower alkyl groups and Y is hydrogen or the residue of an acid, e.g. bis-b -hydroxyethyl sulphoxide and its esters with sulphuric acid or phospheric acid and the sodium, barium and potassium salts thereof. The polymeric substance may be starch, a starch ether, carboxymethyl cellulose, a hydroxyalkyl cellulose, glue, gelatin, a condensate of a polyol or polyamine with an alkylene oxide or a polyalkyleneoxy derivative of an amide or amine. The conversion into divinyl sulphoxide or a substituted divinyl sulphoxide or substances which give rise to these compounds and the reaction thereof with the polymeric substances may be effected by the catalytic action of a alkali, e.g. an alkali metal hydroxide, bicarbonate, or carbonate, ammonium carbonate, trisodium phosphate, sodium sesquicarbonate, borax, an amine or a quaternary ammonium hydroxide. The textile material or film may be treated with the polymeric substance, the substance giving rise to divinyl sulphoxide or a substituted divinyl sulphoxide and the alkali as an aqueous solution, emulsion or dispersion either simultaneously or consecutively in any order, dried at 50 DEG -220 DEG C for from 20 seconds to 1 hour, rinsed, neutralised and dried. The treatment may be carried out in conjunction with or after other chemical or mechanical finishing treatments to confer resistance to shrinkage or creasing, modification of handle or surface lustre or optical brightness. Polyethylene terephthalate film treated with hydroxyethylated cellulose, bis-b -hydroxyethyl sulphoxide and soda ash may be given an affinity for direct cotton dyestuffs and rendred antistatic.