Abstract

The percentage of PPE textiles (Personal Protection Equipment) washed in industrial laundries is continually growing. As distributors of the PPE, the laundries have to ensure that the textiles comply with the relevant standards even after the washing process. When hydro- and oleophobic properties are required, coatings with fluorinated polymers are applied. For economic and ecologic reasons, it is not possible to test every single textile after reprocessing, if these properties are retained. Therefore a re-impregnation is carried out in the last washing step after every procedure. In this work a laboratory washing process for the evaluation of the influences of key parameters of the Sinner´s circle on textile perfluorocarbon finishes for the assessment of different industrial washing procedures is introduced.

INTRODUCTION

Personal protective equipment should protect the wearer from threats to life and health. For protection against e.g., chemicals or blood, hydro- and oleophobic properties are required (1-5). On textiles, these properties are mostly generated by a finish with fluorinated polymers (6).

Structural composition of fluorinated polymers for wet-chemical application
In a typical textile finishing dispersion the content of fluorinated polymer is approximately 20-30 wt percent, featuring a fluorine content between 20 and 50 wt percent (7).
The polymer is build up by the following parts (6-8):
Backbone:

• polyurethane- or poly(meth)acrylate polymer

Side chains:

• Alkyl monomer
• Reactive monomer
• Perfluoroalkyl monomer

Physico-chemical influences on the hydro- and oleophobic properties of fluorinated polymers
To ensure the best hydro- and oleophobic properties of the fabric surface, the distribution and orientation of the fluorinated side-chains resulting in the formation of a CF₃-surface is ...