What is Wrinkle-Free Cotton? November 18th, admin. After all, if cotton shirts can be made to resist those unwanted creases and wrinkles then why even bother with regular cotton? This is the very idea that early researchers and garment manufacturers were tinkering with when synthetic fabrics such as nylon were beginning to replace cotton.
Cotton manufacturers had to find a way to market cotton as the favorable choice of fabric. During the s and 60s, a chemist and researcher named Ruth Benerito, made notable accomplishments in producing easy-care cotton fabrics. The good news was that garments made by this new process were wrinkle-resistant- it did not have to be ironed. The bad news was that this process required the use of formaldehyde- a harsh chemical often used for preserving dead animals and body parts and classified by the U.
In , the synthetic fiber called polyester was introduced to America and marketed as the fabric that required no ironing. As a result:. After polyester entered the scene, cotton manufacturers knew they had to find a better way to make wrinkle-free cotton that was flexible at the same time.
Some of these contributions were based from a single, ingenious chemical cocktail that was first applied to cotton to create the wrinkle-free cotton we know and love today. Benerito, with her research group at the USDA Southern Regional Research Laboratories in New Orleans, attacked the wrinkly problem by first throwing out all the traditional chemical concoctions that manufacturers were currently using to treat cotton against wrinkles which were making the fabric too brittle.
Leaving your cotton shirt crumpled on the ground is enough to break these bonds, which then reform into a different configuration, also known as a wrinkle. To keep cotton wrinkle-free, scientists initially used chemicals that interacted with the bonds, locking them in place. But this left the fabric crisp and rippable. Benerito's revolutionary approach was not to lock the bonds in place but to reorganize the structure of cotton's parallel chains that link together and form a piece of fabric.
Using a special chemical reagent, Benerito's approach kept cotton fabrics flexible but reduced their tendency to wrinkle. Benerito's method was later incorporated into not only wrinkle-resistant cotton, but stain and flame-resistant cotton fabrics as well.
It was also used to make new wood produces and epoxy resins. For all her contributions, Benerito was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in where she joined the ranks of Ernst Alexanderson , who invented the radio, Alexander Graham Bell , inventor of the telephone, and Baruch Samuel Blumberg , who invented the vaccine for Hepatitis B.
As of , there are members of this prestigious group. Explore the interesting world of science with articles, videos and more. Recognizing and celebrating excellence in chemistry and celebrate your achievements.
Diversity in Chemistry Awards Find awards and scholarships advancing diversity in the chemical sciences. Funding to support the advancement of the chemical sciences through research projects. ACS-Hach Programs Learn about financial support for future and current high school chemistry teachers. Ironing is a tedious chore, but wearing crumpled clothing is unprofessional.
But the current methods for making these textiles often release formaldehyde — a chemical that in large amounts is hazardous to human health — into the air and water. Manufacturers typically use a chemical process called cross-linking to create textiles that are less likely to wrinkle.
But these methods often involve agents that contain a significant amount of the hazardous chemical formaldehyde.
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