Effect of Shrinkproofing Pretreatments with Solvents and Polyamines on the Surface Energy of Wool

Abstract

Treating wool with tetraethylenepentamine or polyethyleneimine or rinsing wool with 70% acetone had no significant effect on the dispersion (γ ^d _s ) or polar ( γ^p _s ) com ponents of the surface energy of the wool. Therefore, the previously reported effec tiveness of these treatments for resin shrinkproofing of wool cannot be ascribed to surface chemical factors. However, extracting wool with an azeotropic mixture of benzene/ethanol/water increased γ ^d _s and reduced γ ^p _s to zero, meaning that nonpolar polymers should spread and adhere more efficiently to wool so pretreated.

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