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Crosslinking of cotton cellulose with diglycidyl ether
Author(s) -
Jones Eugene W.,
Rayburn James A.
Publication year - 1961
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.1961.070051814
Subject(s) - sodium hydroxide , cellulose , diglycidyl ether , epoxide , curing (chemistry) , catalysis , hydrolysis , polymerization , polymer chemistry , chemistry , ether , organic chemistry , materials science , epoxy , chemical engineering , polymer , bisphenol a , engineering
Certain diepoxides react with cellulose under a variety of conditions to give covalent crosslinks. The ether linkages formed with diepoxides are stable to hydrolysis and offer advantages over crosslinks formed with N ‐methylol compounds. Diglycidyl ether (DGE) has many advantages over other diepoxides. It has a high epoxide equivalent, low vapor pressure, and is completely water‐soluble. Both epoxide groups have equal reactivity and their reaction with cellulose can be catalyzed by acids or bases. Fabric properties obtained with DGE with the use of acidic and basic catalysts at various temperatures and concentrations are compared. DGE applied with acidic catalysts by the conventional pad‐dry‐cure process gave both dry and wet crease recovery. The same catalyst in a wet‐cure process promoted polymerization instead of crosslinking and resulted in only slight improvement in crease recovery, but did increase the tear strength. Under conventional conditions of drying and curing, weakly basic catalysts did not promote crosslinking. However, concentrations of sodium hydroxide around 3% gave both dry and wet crease recovery. Strong concentrations of sodium hydroxide at room temperature or in a wet‐cure process promoted crosslinking and gave predominantly wet crease recovery.