Alternatives to Conventional Fluorocarbon based Soil Resistant Treatment for Automotive Interior Textiles–An Evaluative Study

Abstract: During the last two decades, the applications of fluorocarbon based chemicals to provide soil resistant or soil release properties for automotive interior and upholstery have increased tremendously. But, recent studies showed that the soil resistant treatment based on fluorochemicals has detrimental effects on the environment as well as on humans due to the presence of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) content. PFOS and PFOA are toxic, bio accumulative and bio persistent fluoro-organic compounds. This project focus on PFOS and PFOA-free soil resistant chemicals and their application on interior textiles used for automotive. Literature study was done by keeping in mind all the aspects regarding soil and nature of soils, soil resistant mechanism, PFOA and PFOS-free soil resistant chemicals, chemistry of the chemicals, area of the application and the method of application. Experimental application of PFOA and PFOS-free soil resistant chemicals by using different concentrations on 100% Polyester dyed and unfinished fabric was performed with Pad-Dry-Cure method. Experimental application was carried out to evaluate the soil resistant treated samples for soil resistant, clean ability and colour change results. At the end, the comparison of the results of three mentioned evaluations gave us the best possible alternatives.