Prevention of Soil Redeposition in Textile Cleaning Operations by Proteins and Other Polymeric Materials

Certain proteins and other polymeric materials have been found highly effective in preventing the redeposition of carbon black, a test soil, on cotton fabric in aqueous cleaning systems containing an alkylarylsulfonate detergent and alkaline builders. The soil-redeposition-preventing proper ties of the various proteins tested were found to be correlated approximately with their proline content. The proline-rich proteins gave good to excellent whiteness retention. Of several synthetic polymer materials investigated, the uncharged types were more effective than the charged types. For the uncharged polymers, polyvinylpyrrolidone, polyvinyl alcohol, and poly ethylene glycol, an optimum degree of polymerization was observed for maximum effectiveness.