Easy-care treatments for fabrics and garments

Wrinkle-free or easy-care treatments for cellulosic fabrics have been widely applied in the modern day clothing and textile products due to the fast pace of the lifestyle. It is also a necessity for office and business clothes. This chapter provides an overview of the development of easy-care finishing, the mechanism of cross-linking reaction in easy-care treatment, the test methods of easy-care performance, and the development of different types of cross-linkers such as formaldehyde-based and formaldehyde-free compounds, as well as their advantages and disadvantages. Moreover, the recent progresses in nanotechnology and multifunctional finishing related to easy-care have also been described. Cellulosic fibers, especially cotton as the most important fiber for textile industry, are the focus of this chapter.