The role of crosslinking in enhancing wet crease recovery of cellulosic fabrics

Considerable experimental evidence has been reported in recent years in support of the theory that covalent crosslinkages between cellulose chains are essential to impart dry crease recovery to cellulosic fabrics. It has been proposed also that wet crease recovery can be increased by simple substitution in the total absence of crosslinking. It is the purpose of this paper to report a direct comparison of the effects of monofunctional and bifunctional reagents of identical size and unequivocal functionality on the wet crease recovery and other properties of cotton, rayon and other regenerated cellulose fabrics. The compounds employed are derivatives of vinyl sulfones. The synthesis of these products is briefly described, with some emphasis on the new compounds and intermediates prepared. The procedure selected for reacting the sulfones with cellulosic fabrics is described, and the differences observed in the chemical behavior of the mono‐ and bifunctional compounds are discussed. A comparison of the physical properties, and particularly of the wet crease recovery of fabrics modified to the same extent with mono‐ and bifunctional reagents, suggests that side chains are ineffective in enhancing wet crease recovery of cellulosic fabrics. The increase in wet crease recovery resulting from the reaction of swollen cellulose with polyfunctional reagents must therefore be attributed to the formation of covalent crosslinks.