ABSTRACT
This chapter describes both chromatographic and spectroscopic analyses of durable press (DP) agents. Modem durable press treatments of cotton involve the application of cross-linking agents to the cellulosic polymer in order to impart smooth drying, wrinkle resistance and/or crease retention. The very early durable press finishing agents were urea-formaldehyde and melamine-formaldehyde products. Modern analytical instrumentation has played a significant role in the development of DP finishing agents. These tools have been used for structure determination, mixture composition, properties and mechanisms of cross-linking. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is an extremely powerful instrumental technique for determining structures of materials. General information on NMR principles may be found in any introductory organic chemistry text or in specific references, such as Sanders and Hunter. P. A. Rennison identified 1,3-dimethyl-4,5-dihydroxy-2-imidazolidinone (DHEU) in hydrolysates from fabrics finished with that reagent by eluting the products on silica with 1-propanol/water. E. Kantschev and M. Nesnakomova monitored and optimized the synthesis of DHEU from glyoxal and urea with thin-layer chromatography.
