Softener

Softening agents are applied to textiles to improve their hand, drape, cutting and sewing qualities. An effective softener must be readily dispersible in rinse water and rapidly absorbed so that uniform deposition on the fabric can occur within a relatively short treatment time and generally, exhaustion should take place in about 5min for the softener to be effective and economically usable.

 

Fabric softener (also called fabric conditioner) is used to prevent static cling and make fabric softer. It is available as a liquid or as dryer sheets. Popular brand names include Downy (Lenor), Snuggle, Bounce, Comfort and Sta‐Soft.

It is work by coating the surface of the cloth fibers with a thin layer of chemicals; these chemicals have lubricant properties and are electrically conductive, thus making the fibers feel smoother and preventing buildup of static electricity. Other functions are improvements of iron glide during ironing, increased resistance to stains, and reduction of wrinkling.

REASONS FOR USING SOFTENER

• As the textile material goes under various mechanical and chemical processes that make the surface of the material harsh. For example, Removal of natural oil and waxes by scouring and bleaching. 
• Resin finishing of textile material also imparts some degree of harshness.Soaping of textile material also add harsh feeling to the material. 

DESIRABLE PROPERTIES OF TEXTILE SOFTENER   

• It should be easy to handle. 
• It should have good compatibility to other chemicals. 
• It should not affect the shade of the material. 
• It should not affect the fastness of dyed material. 
• It should not cause any yellowing effect on dyed and finished material. 
• It should be stable to high temperature. 
• It should be non volatile by water vapor.  
• It should be non toxic and non caustic.   
• It should be easily bio degradable. 

MECHANISMS OF SOFTENING EFFECT

Softeners provide their main effects on the surface of the fabrics. Small softener molecules,  in addition, penetrate the fiber and provide an internal plasticization of the fiber forming polymer by reducing of the glass transition temperature. The physical arrangement of the usual softener molecules on the fiber surface is important. Depending on the ionic nature of the softener molecule and the relative hydrophobicity of the fiber surface, cationic softeners orient themselves with their positively charged ends toward the partially negatively charged fabrics (zeta potential), creating a new surface of hydrophobic carbon chain that provide the characteristics excellent softening and

seen with cationic softeners. Anionic softeners, on the other hand, orient themselves with  their negatively charged ends repelled away from the negatively charged fiber surface. This  leads to higher hydrophilicity, but less softening than with cationic softeners.   The orientation of non-ionic softeners depends on the nature of the fiber surface, with the  hydrophilic portion of the softener being attracted to hydrophilic surfaces and the  hydrophobic portion being attracted to hydrophobic surface. 

 

CLASSIFICATION OF SOFTENER 

1. Cationic softeners
2. Anionic softeners   
3. Non ionic softeners 
4. Amphoteric softeners 
5. Reactive softeners 
6. Silicone softeners 
7. Anti­ozone Softener 
8. Urethane Softeners
9. Macro softener
10. Micro softener