WATER/OIL REPELLENT PROPERTY OF POLYESTER FABRICS AFTER SUPERCRITICAL CARBON DIOXIDE FINISHING by

The strong permeability and driving force of supercritical carbon dioxide renders it an ideal medium for fabrics finishing. This paper is to use supercritical carbon dioxide medium with a solution of organic fluorine to fabricate water/oil repel-lent polyester fabrics. A series of characterization methods including Fourier transform infrared spectrometry, energy dispersive spectrometry, and scanning electron microscopy were carried out to evaluate the fabrics finishing. Fourier transform infrared spectrometry showed that the transmittance peak appeared at 1202.4 and 1147.4 cm–1, indicating the presence of –CF2 – group on the surface of polyester fabrics. The results of energy dispersive spectrometer and scanning electron microscopy showed that the fluorine was evenly distributed on the fibers surface. In addition, a series of physical properties were detected, including con-tact angel, air permeability, breaking strength, and wearing resistance. The av-erage water and hexadecane contact angles were 147.58 ° and 143.78°, respec-tively. Compared with the initial fabrics, the treated one has little change in air permeability, while its strength increased greatly. The treated fabrics gained good water/oil repellent properties while keeping good air permeability and im-proving mechanical property. Key words: supercritical carbon dioxide, water/oil repellent finishing, polyester fabric