Crosslinking structures and dyeing kinetics of cotton cellulose treated with a steeped process

A steeped procedure was introduced to the durable press finishing process in this study to study some physical properties, the crosslinking structure, and the pore structure. The results showed that the values of the dry and wet crease recovery angles of fabrics treated with the steep–pad–dry–cure process were higher than those of fabrics treated with the pad–dry–cure process, and those phenomena increased with higher steeped temperatures and longer times. The lengths of the crosslinks for the steep–pad–dry–cure process were higher than those for the pad–dry–cure process at a given number of crosslinks per anhydroglucose unit. The fabrics treated with the steep–pad–dry–cure process had higher values of the dye absorption, rate constant, and structural diffusion resistance constant than those treated with the pad–dry–cure process at the same dyeing temperature; however, they had lower values of the equilibrium absorption and activation energy than those treated with the pad–dry–cure process. The results of thin‐layer chromatography, H‐NMR, ¹³C‐NMR, and IR analyses suggested that self‐condensation between the crosslinking agents occurred during the steeped procedure. Additionally, the steep–pad–dry–cure‐treated fabric had more inner agent distribution than the pad–dry–cure‐treated fabric. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 98: 2555–2562, 2005