Dendrimer Technology for Water and Oil Repellent Cotton Textiles

The aim of this study was to determine whether dendrimer-based products can replace classic fluorocarbon-based products in water repellent, woven cotton fabrics. Furthermore, the effect of adding a dendrimer to a fluorocarbon product on the resulting water and oil repellency was studied. For that purpose, fluorocarbon, dendrimer, and dendrimer-fluorocarbon mixture-based commercial products were applied to cotton fabrics using the pad-dry-cure method. Repellency performance and wash resistance of these chemicals were investigated. It was found that the same water repellency values could be obtained in lower concentrations or under milder curing conditions using the dendrimer-fluorocarbon mixture-based product compared to that of the fluorocarbon-based product.