S. Shabanian, K. Golovin

School of Engineering, University of British Columbia, Canada

Long chain perfluoro-compound (PFC)-based finishes have been broadly used to render textiles highly water and oil-repellent, due to their very low surface energy. However, these perfluorinated compounds pose threats to human health and the environment due to the by-products emitted into the environment, particularly perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). Because shorter chain length PFCs were purportedly less detrimental, garment manufacturers have started to replace the short-chain PFCs, even though they still pose substantial environmental and health problems. Consequently, there is an immediate and unsolved demand for developing non-toxic surface treatments. In this work we discuss the development of design parameters that enable the fabrication of oil-repellent textile finishes that do not utilize PFCs. For example, a PFC-free, oil-repellent jacket fabric is fabricated that exhibits oleophobicity towards canola, olive, and castor oil, in addition to synthetic sweat.