Deposition of Biosourced Soil-Release Polymers at Model Cotton Interfaces

Cotton surfaces important to consider in laundry applications since cotton and polycotton garments comprise the highest proportion of fabrics. We have recently managed to make model cotton surfaces suitable for NR experiments and here wish to use NR to study the effectiveness of some novel environmentally friendly soil release polymers. Our results will enable testing and validation for predictive models to improve laundry formulations and minimise the considerable global impact of fabric care and fabric production. Critically, Neutron reflection helps us to bridge the gap in scale between molecular level simulations and macroscopic tests on fabric samples, using well-defined models that can capture the essential features of the real industrial challenge.

在衣物洗护应用场景中，棉表面是亟需重点考量的研究对象，因为纯棉及涤棉（polycotton）织物在各类面料中占比最高。我们近期已成功制备适用于中子反射（Neutron Reflection, NR）实验的标准棉表面模型，本次研究拟借助NR探究多款新型环保释污聚合物的应用效能。本研究成果将可用于验证相关预测模型，以优化衣物洗护配方，并尽可能降低面料护理与面料生产对全球环境造成的显著负面影响。尤为关键的是，中子反射技术可通过能够捕捉真实工业挑战核心特征的良定义模型，弥合分子级模拟与织物样品宏观测试之间的尺度鸿沟。