Synthesis of Bio-Based Non-Fluorinated Oil and Water Repellent Finishes for Cotton Fabric by Using Palmitic Acid, Succinic Acid, and Maleic Acid

Oil and water repellency is very important for certain textile end products. Traditional durable oil and water repellents contain fluorine or formaldehyde-based substances. These substances have a long-term negative impact on the human health and natural environmental, and therefore, they are being banned. To address this problem, scientists are continuously working on the development of new sustainable alternatives. In this regard, present paper reports the results of the successful development, optimization, and application of two ecofriendly oil and water repellents for cotton fabrics. In case of the first oil and water repellent development, present research polymerizes the bio-based palmitic acid with formaldehyde-free bio-succinic acid. While in the second oil and water repellent, this research polymerizes the bio-based palmitic acid with formaldehyde-free maleic acid. The developed polymers provided comparable or better performance properties with reference to the C6-based commercial fluorocarbon. In addition, the proposed polymers were successfully characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, FTIR analysis, H-NMR spectroscopy, energy dispersive X-Ray (EDX) analysis, and SEM analysis).