Polyurethane dispersions prepared from vegetable oil and their application as textile finishes

One of the major challenges facing the polymer industry now is finding sustainable and renewable alternatives to petroleum-based raw materials. To overcome such challenges, these novel water-borne polyurethane dispersions were prepared from bioresources (vegetable oil). Vegetable oil-based polyol is synthesized by epoxidation and hydroxylation methods from vegetable oil. Consequently, polyurethane dispersions are prepared by reacting the vegetable oil-based polyol with isophorone diisocyanate and dimethylol propionic acid to form the polyurethane prepolymer, which further reacts with 1,4-butanediol, and the final product is obtained by the addition of water. Fourier transform infrared analysis is used for the structural confirmation of the prepared vegetable oil-based polyol and polyurethane dispersions. A number of textile tests, including mechanical (tear strength (ASTM 1424) and tensile strength (ASTM D-5034)) and antibacterial, were conducted on poly/cotton plain weave fabrics after applying the synthesized dispersions by pad dry-cure methods. The hemolytic test method was used to check the biocompatibility of the synthesized dispersions. Results reveal that these finishes effectively increase the tensile strength of the treated fabric samples, such as white fabric samples, which show tensile strength values of (248, 255, 268 and 325 N from untreated 240 N) in the warp direction. The biological outcomes show the antibacterial and hemolytic activity of the dispersions are influenced by the presence of natural polyols in the dispersions. These results indicate that covering poly/cotton fabrics with vegetable oil-based polyurethane dispersions improve their tensile strength and antibacterial properties and they can replace petroleum-based polyurethane finishes.