Bleaching and dyeing; fluid treatment and chemical modification – Chemical modification of textiles or fibers or products thereof – Cellulose fibers
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-22
2001-06-12
Einsmann, Margaret (Department: 1751)
Bleaching and dyeing; fluid treatment and chemical modification
Chemical modification of textiles or fibers or products thereof
Cellulose fibers
C008S181000, C008S120000, C008S125000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06245117
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a modifier of cellulose fibers and a modification method of cellulose fibers. More specifically, the present invention relates to an anti-fibrillation agent or a deep dyeing agent for modifying cellulose fibers without damaging the softness and to a deep dyeing pretreatment method. Moreover, the term fiber used in the present invention widely includes cottons, tows, yarns, woven fabrics, knitted fabrics, nonwoven fabrics and fiber products.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Hitherto, cellulose fibers, for example, cotton fibers; regenerated cellulose fibers such as viscose rayon (rayon, polynosic, polyviscose, etc.), cuprammonium rayon (Cupra), refined cellulose fibers (for example, Tencel which is solvent-spun cellulose produced by Courtaulds Fibers (UK)), etc.; semisynthetic cellulose fibers such as cellulose acetate (acetate, diacetate, triacetate) fibers, promix (polyacrylonitrile-milk protein graft fiber), etc.; linen fibers; or the like, easily undergo fibrillation. The fibrillation herein denotes a phenomenon in which microfibers forming one fiber are split in the length direction of the fiber. The fibrillation causes whitening of the fiber, thus deteriorating the quality of the fiber. Methods for effectively preventing the fibrillation have not been a suggested to date.
In particular, the refined cellulose fiber has fiber strength stronger than that of rayon and a soft feeling peculiar to rayon. However, since the refined cellulose fiber has a single fiber structure having a uniform and dense fiber cross section instead of a skin-core structure, it is easily fibrillated. The recent researches and developments of the refined cellulose fibers have focused on anti-pilling technologies. Among the refined cellulose fibers, in the refined cellulose fiber in which the fiber surface is intentionally fibrillated by a crumpling and pounding process and then the fibrillated fibers are melted and removed by a cellulase process, pilling hardly occurs. Such a refined cellulose fiber has a feeling of a so-called peach skin finish fabric, and is evaluated as a fiber material suitable for the purpose of the fashion aspect JP 6-322667.
However, the above-mentioned method has problems, for example, the thinning of fibers and a long duration and complicated operation. Thus, it is not a sufficient method because it may deteriorate the strength, or it may lead to the poor operation efficiency. Furthermore, although the peach skin finish fabric may be suitable for the purpose of fashion, it is not suitable for the general-purpose. Thus, the application of the use and using method are limited.
In such circumstances, many methods for preventing the fibrillation by chemically treating fibers have been suggested. Examples of such methods include a method of treating fibers with a bifunctional aldehyde based treating agent (see Publication of JP No. 8-49167 A), a method of treating fibers with diglycidyl ether based treating agent (see Publication of JP No. 9-137384 A), or the like.
In such methods, however, as in usual resin processing methods, the softness of fibers is deteriorated and the fibers cannot practically be used. Furthermore, unevenness in dyeing easily occurs.
Furthermore, a reactive dye, a direct dye, a vat dye, a sulphur dye, a naphthol dye, or the like, is used for dyeing the cellulose fibers. However, each dye has its own effective dye uptake. In general, the dyeing concentration beyond the concentration when the dyeing site of each fiber is dyed cannot be expected. The reactive dyeing achieved by ion bonding (for example, dyeing of nylon and wool with acid dye, dyeing of acrylic fibers with basic dye) has an excellent dyeing efficiency. However, the dyeing efficiency of a reactive dye that reacts with cellulose fiber by covalent bonding is inferior to that by ion bonding. In addition, the dyeing efficiencies of the direct dye, the vat dye, the sulphur dye and the naphthol dye, which bond to cellulose fibers by hydrogen bonding and Van der Waals force, have poorer dyeing efficiency than that by ion bonding, although it is not so poor as the case of the reactive dye. The deterioration of the dyeing efficiency is significantly shown in the case of the deep dyeing. In particular, since the reactive dye uses the most strong and stable chemical bonding, i.e. covalent bonding, it has an excellent wet color fastness. Furthermore, since the reactive dye permits wide range of dyeing in terms of color tone, the consumption of the reactive dye is the greatest in all other dyes used for cellulose fibers. However, the reactive dye has a problem in dyeing efficiency. It is a big challenge to improve the efficiency in dyeing cellulose fibers by direct dyes.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore a first object of the present invention to provide an agent of preventing the fibrillation without damaging the softness of the cellulose fibers and a method therefor.
It is a second object of the present invention to provide a dyeing agent capable of obtaining a deep dyeing effect by improving the efficiency in deep dyeing cellulose fibers and a deep dyeing pretreatment using the same.
In order to achieve the above-mentioned objects, the modifier of cellulose fibers of the present invention contains a chlorohydrin group at the terminal of a compound A expressed by the following chemical formula 3:
wherein, R denotes an organic group including a hydrocarbon group, an alkanolamine group, an aromatic group and/or a group including a polyoxyalkylene adduct; m denotes a positive integer of 0 to 3 and can be represented by a plurality of numerical values; and k denotes a positive integer of 2 to 6. Herein, the compound A expressed by the above-mentioned chemical formula may be a single compound or may be a mixture.
In the present invention, the modifier of the cellulose fibers is used as an anti-fibrillation agent or a deep dyeing agent. However, it can be used for the other objects within the scope of the purpose of the present invention.
It is preferable that the cellulose fiber is at least one selected from the group consisting of a cotton fiber, viscose rayon, cuprammonium rayon, a refined cellulose fiber, a regenerated cellulose fiber and a linen fiber. Of course, the modifier can be used for the other cellulose fibers within the scope of the purpose of the present invention.
The fixing amount of the modifier expressed by the above-mentioned chemical formula (compound A) with respect to the cellulose fiber is preferably in the range from 0.05 to 10 weight %, more preferably in the range from 0.1 to 8 weight %, and especially preferably in the range from 0.2 to 5 weight %. When the fixing amount is in the above-mentioned ranges, the modifier can contribute to both the anti-fibrillation and the deep dyeing.
It is preferable that the modifier expressed by the above-mentioned chemical formula (compound A) is an aqueous composition (e.g. emulsion) and the concentration of the chemical formula in the aqueous composition is 1 to 30 parts by weight with respect to 100 parts by weight of water. When the modifier is in a form of aqueous emulsion, it easily can be used for the modifying treatment of cellulose fibers. Furthermore, when the concentration is in the above-mentioned ranges, the modifier can contribute to both anti-fibrillation and deep dyeing.
The R of the chemical formula (compound A) is a hydrocarbon group that is a residue after glycerin, sorbitol and not more than a decamer of polyethylene glycols are reacted with each other; an alkanolamine group including a triethanolamine group or a diethanolamine group; and a cresol group, a bisphenol A group or a bisphenol S group. When R is the above-mentioned organic group, the modifier contributes to both the anti-fibrillation and the deep dyeing.
Next, the modification method of cellulose fibers is characterized in that the compound A expressed by the above-mentioned chemical formula is brought into contact with a cellulose fiber in an aqueous phase in the presence of an alkali metal compound, and then
Fujita Shigenobu
Nishikawa Sadahiko
Tsuji Kazuhide
Einsmann Margaret
Ipposha Oil Industries Co., Ltd.
Merchant & Gould P.C.
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