Fluorocarbon compounds used in the textile industry include the toxic and volatile compounds that are harmful for the body. Thus, it is imperative to prevent direct contact of these finishing materials with the skin. This can be the reason for creating a hybrid or dual finishings. In this project, the optimum conditions of hybrid finishing products with Ruco Guard EEE have been investigated on the cotton and cotton-polyester fabrics. To limit the fluorocarbon finishing to the one side of the fabric leading to the hybrid properties, a suitable thickener was used and its optimum concentration was obtained. To evaluate the performance of the dual finishing, hybrid samples were compared to the samples treated with the conventional method of pad-dry-cure. Since thickeners application on the fabrics leads to inappropriate handle properties, effect of the crease-resistant and castisizing (mercerizing without tension) pre-treatments were examined to reduce the thickeners content. Fabrics evaluation was done using 3M water repellency, wash and abrasion fastness, wrinkle recovery angle, wrinkle recovery appearance of fabric, air and water vapor permeability, tenacity, whiteness and yellowness index. The results revealed the useful application of the thickener and conventional equipments in the finishing line to fabricate the hydrophobic/hydrophilic hybrid samples. In this study, the 3M water repellency of the fabrics side treated with the fluorocarbon layer was 10 (hydrophobic properties) and the untreated side was 0 (hydrophilic properties). Fastness properties of the dual finished samples were compared to the samples treated with conventional printing-dry-cure method. The crease-resistant samples treated with the fluorocarbon, due to crosslinking happened between the fibers and the fluorocarbon material, showed more fastness than the samples only treated with the fluorocarbon. This method not only showed no negative effect on the samples physical properties, but also, the fluorocarbon coating formed on the fibers surface has a protective effect. In addition, it was found that the crease-resistant and castisizing pre-treatments have no impact on reducing the thickeners concentration, but the fabric structure can be more effective. Also, evaluation of samples air and water vapor permeability indicated an increase in the sample treated with only fluorocarbon, compared to hybrid ones pre-treated with crease-resistant and castisizing materials and the treated with fluorocarbon. Key words: Hybrid Finishing, Water Repellent, Fluorocarbon.
