Innovative eco-friendly crosslinker for leather and textile finishing

Green-Linker is a new crosslinking agent to be used in the finishing stage when processing leather or
textile. This final treatment is a complex process, meant to both protect the surface from external agents and change the look/touch features, for functional and aesthetic aims.
Crosslinkers are chemicals with catalytic activity towards the polymeric chain and their main feature is to interact with separate polymeric units (by reacting with the free functional groups available along the chain) creating a net of links crossing between two chains (cross-link), which leads to a 3D structure, more solid and resistant, once the film is dried (after application).
This 3D structure shows higher fastness and stability to daily use and external agents, which result in improved resistance and good quality of several articles of common use like shoes, bags, furniture, car seats, clothes etc … The chemicals generally used for these treatments are often harmful to human health and to the environment. Italkem has managed to develop a more ecological, less toxic and single crosslinking product that achieves the same results as the currently available crosslinkers with better features in terms of ecological/health impact.

Phase of study for this project are basically three and can be summarized as follows:
1. Developing the best formulation in terms of stability at room T and 60°C
2. Once fixed the best formulation, it has to perform under high standard quality
Different formulations were tested for stability and the best one showed no surface floating, no bottom deposit, no change in aspect after 90 days. The chosen formulation was then applied on leather (before and after the 90 days stability time) on different articles and the same were tested for wet rubbing resistance (UNI ISO 11640). Same procedure was run for textile.
Once verified stability and effectiveness after the set period, the product has been applied on different articles and the leathers tested for dry/wet rubbing resistance, flex resistance and light fastness. We achieved good results on laboratory-level samples of product and the stepped-up to a pilot plant quantity of products to confirm the good results achieved.
After achieving these results, the second period of the project has been dedicated to:
Scaling up to industrial production of the molecule itself
Determination of the nature and characterization of the molecule
Scaling up application trials to industrial level
Protection of both the invention and the brand name
Exploitation and dissemination
Full characterization for health/environment safe use both for workers and users
Results for this work were all positive, summarized as follows:
we have successfully established the final industrial production procedure
determined the nature of the substance to be a polymer
Successfully run industrial trials on leathers in big tanneries with a big pilot scale sample
Tested obtained leathers from industrial trials at an international laboratory
Registered our trade mark at EUIPO
Submitted a request for patent to IPO
Started eco/health tests on pilot samples
Participated to International exhibition and presented Green Linker to international customers
Started dissemination of samples for trials
Planned the first real industrial-scale production
Unfortunately, the Covid emergency has put in stand-by the last two steps, that will immediately restart at the end of the lock-down period that is set for Italy and many of the Countries we are working with.

Results obtained till now are very good and we are confident we can achieve what was planned in the idea of the project : a novel, single cross-linker for leather and textile market, that could be very efficient, shorten processing time, reduce costs and be environmental friendly both because of its chemical nature and because it helps reducing industrial waste. We do expect to impact the market with a product that is very effective, more environment sustainable, to be recognized with the ECO-LABEL and with a competitive price in comparison with current crosslinkers. Leather treatment is globally considered as highly impacting on the environment, so we think it is very important to be able to offer more and more products to the market with a vision on the future of environment, instead of focusing only on the mere counting of possible profits.
All these points are achieved, only the ECO-LABEL will be delayed as it implicates many factors of the leather/textile treatment prior to the finishing we are involved in, and this was not made possible by the Covid situation. We are confident we will achieve it once we can re-start having our technician to travel for trials, as we want this result to be obtained on finished articles from industrial production and not from laboratory trials.

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - Green-linker (Innovative eco-friendly crosslinker for leather and textile finishing)

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