Fibrillation tendency and Dyeing characteristic of Lyocell treated with Epichlorohydrine

Lyocell is a not only environmentally-friendly but also very advantageous fiber. When Lyocell is soaked in water, its wet tenacity does not decrease and elongation and moisture regain of it are better than cotton. However, one drawback of lyocell is its fibrillation. The fibrills of lyocell were generated during wet process such as scouring and dyeing deteriorates the dyeing color depth and the appearance of fabric. The purpose of this study was to decrease the fibrillation tendency of lyocell fabric using crosslinking agent, epichlorohydrine(ECH). The effects of NaOH scouring and ECH crosslinking were observed. The different types of ECH addition methods to lyocell and the various concentrations of ECH in crosslinking reaction onto dyeing characteristic and fibriallation were investigated. Weight loss and whiteness index of crosslinked lyocell by ECH were examined. K/S values of ECH treated lyocell fabrics dyed with reactive dye were measured and SEM images of untreated and treated lyocells were observed extensively to define the fibrillation tendency. The results were as follows ; 1) ECH treatment showed the effect of weight loss and scouring because ECH crosslinking reaction was conducted in alkaline condition. 2) The increase in ECH concentration from 5 to 30% does not affected K/S value changes. 3) ECH crosslinking can effectively prevent the fibrillation tendency of lyocell.