Hydrophilic Silicone Oils

Hydrophilic silicone oils are designed for high moisturizing and give hydrophilic effect on knit, woven or towel fabrics. They provide both hydrophilicity, high stability, high durability on fibers, and fabrics. Another significant feature is the hand feeling on textile. The hydrophilic block silicone oil has the positively charged ion of the formula, wherein the n1 is the number of 5 to 10, the R is the polyether group, and the degree of polymerization ranges from 3 to 50.

Hydrophilic silicone oils provide luxuriously soft and flexible hand feel to most of the cellulosic and cellulosic blends of fabrics/garments. This effect is further enhanced by a deep, voluminous and smooth softness that is not usually associated with silicone materials. Fabrics treated with the hydrophilic silicone emulsions are typically hydrophilic and remarkably retain hydrophilicity even after high temperature dry/cure conditions as well as during the aging of the fabric.

There are different types of hydrophilic functional silicone oils. They can be epoxy modified, quat modified or polyether modified oils. They provide different types of hand feelings and hydrophilicity depending on their different penetration into textiles.

A quat based hydrophilic silicone oil can be applied to textile for an extreme softness effect. The quat based silicone oil gives voluminous, silky, fluffy hand feelings on cotton and cotton blend fabrics. Especially for towels, quaternized hydrophilic silicone oils provide fluffy effect and they also help decrease process time for the turbang process.The epoxy modified hydrophilic silicone oils deliver smoothness on cotton, synthetic, and blend fabrics. They can be combined with other hydrophilic silicone oils or new generation silicone fluids.

The other types of hydrophilic silicone oils are the polyether silicone oils which improve hydrophilicity on textiles. They should be formulated with hydrophilic silicone oils or new generation silicone fluids to give more hydrophilicity. They are generally self-emulsified in water.

Key features of hydrophilic silicone oil emulsions:

• Nonionic and slightly cationic
• High shear stability
• Excellent pH-temperature stability
• Nonionic stability
• Electrolyte stability
• Trials showed a minimum of 5 wash cycles under European Standards (40 C, 25 min)
• Superior softness: more than 2 times vs. other silicones by exhaustion system
• Oil-spot free
• No process trouble in any kind of finishing equipment
• Re-dyeable / over-dyeable
• Hydrophilic softness
• No fabric-yellowing and no discoloration