New Durable Water Repelling Textile Coatings by Hybrids Technologies (Low long-chain C8 fluorocarbons and Environment Friendly)

A new intelligent hybrids which is compoesed of PFC-free chemicals conforming with the Greenpeace campaign Detox and the ZDHC programme is developed by Nano-Care Deutschland.

The CEO, Oliver Sonntag said that ”The big advantage of hybrid technologies lies in their ability to combine positive features by eliminating the disadvantages as far as possible.” According to the researches of Nano-care, this new product can provide the new hope for sustainability in the market for durable water repelling textile coatings (DWRs).

1.What is exactly the Intelligent Hybrids?

The Intelligent Hybrids products is an advanced product use short-chain C6 technology to achieve the long-chain C8 performance. Which means that this new product can reduce the usage of fluorine to protect the environment and still keep the great performance of oil or alcohol repellency.

For one of the intelligent hybrids products, it has a silica backbone with modified C6 polymer. It can provide polyester a level 8 performance and a level 7 performance for cotton according to ISO 14419 without the PFCs which can break down to PFOS and PFOA – two emissions proven to be “bioaccumulative”, “persistent” and “carcinogenic”.

2.Why this new hybrids product is environment friendly?

For the use of durable water repellency coatings industry (How to measure water repellency performance of textile? Checking Bundesmann water repellency tester for more details.), predominataly fluorocarbon products were widely used for impregnating textiles. Until 2012, the two emissions PFOS and PFOA which are the break down products of long-chain C8 fluorocarbons (PFCs) are proved to be “bioaccumulative”, “persistent” and “carcinogenic” ecological risks.

Long-chain C8 modified textile have high efficiency and low-cost performance but it is served as an argument to Greenpeace. But for many fluorine-free products, their application and performance are not that ideal for water repellency coatings industry.

The intelligent hybrids products have great performance for water repellency like C8 treatment but only modified with C6. The Nano-Care is also working on developing products with C4 polymer to achieve the goal of offering C0 polymer in the future to reduce the chain length and quantity for the whole industry. This new product can minimise fluorine usage to protect our environment.

3.What's the application of this new technology?

The technology can be combination with other technology to provide special features such as LAD (laundry-air-dry). The hybrids can be conbination with silicon dioxide nano-technology, paraffins, waxes, resins and silicones. They will have the basic performance and lead to superior features in evolution.

The hybrids have great water and dirt repellency for a wide range of textile fibres including polyamide, polyester, viscose, cotton, silk, leather and wool as well as on their blends, it also have further potential as a booster for oil and alcohol repellency to minimise fluorine usage.

The intelligent hybrids constitute an advantage both for the environment and the cost issue for the areas where oil repellency is imperative.