DEVELOPING A CHEMICAL PLATFORM BASED ON COTTONSEED OIL TO DEVELOP FUNCTIONAL FINISHES FOR CELLULOSIC SUBSTRATES

The overarching goal of this project is to develop a chemical platform based on cottonseed oil to produce novel functional, non-allergenic and sustainable products that can be used as finishing agents (softeners and durable press agents) for cotton apparel and wet-strength agents for paper. These new applications will create economic value for cottonseed oil that is sustainable and profitable within the current plant oil based chemical industry. Green reactions to epoxidize the cotton seed oil will be utilized. The new applications for epoxidized cotton seed oil will take advantage of the properties of cotton seed oil that include a high palmitic/linolenic ratio, resistance to thermally induced oxidation, and a lack of allergenicity, which will differentiate the products from other seed oil products. We will characterize cottonseed oil, epoxidize the oil, aminate the oil, create oil in water emulsions, and then apply emulsions to fabrics and paper. We aim to develop unique, renewable and green durable press agents for fabrics and wet strength additives for paper. Chemical analysis of the oils and modified oils, as well as the treated fabrics and paper will be used to interpret and optimize the systems. Soybean oil will be the control material. Outcomes will include new technologies to create functionalized cotton seed oil, to produce stable oil in water emulsions, to treat fabrics for wrinkle resistance, dimensional stability, and to treat paper to develop water resistance and wet strength properties for containerboard.The project is a collaboration between researchers at North Carolina State University, Cotton Inc., and an industrial fabric finish manufacturer. The proposed research addresses key issues pertinent to the A1811 program AFRI Commodity Board Co-funding Topic 5 by developing improved cotton byproduct utilization which will improve the resilience of the cotton production system.