Multifunctional finishing of cotton using chitosan extracted from bio-waste.

In the current work, chitosan extracted from waste shrimp shells was used in finishing formulation for cotton fabric, along with DMDHEU and other chemicals, imparting multiple performance characteristics such as wrinkle free, antibacterial and flame retardant properties. The finished fabrics were evaluated for textile properties like tensile strength, bending length, yellowness index and functional properties like crease recovery angle, antibacterial activity and flame retardancy and also for the ecological properties like formaldehyde release. The finished fabric showed excellent crease recovery, antibacterial property and flame retardancy which were retained to a moderate extent even after 20 washes. Besides formaldehyde scavenging action, chitosan clearly showed its positive role in imparting multifunctional properties to cotton.