Interaction between Amphoteric Polymer and Silicic Acid Tanned Leather

Silicic acid-based tanning system is an effective and promising chrome-free tanning technology, and it is urgent to develop compatible post-tanning processes. Fatliquoring is one of the key procedures to determine the quality of resulted leather and fatliquoring agents mainly play the role of an effective softer/ plasticizer in leather production. However, there is a mismatch between most commercial fatliquoring agents (mainly compatible with chrome tanned leather) and silicic acid tanned leather (named SATL). Herein, an amphoteric polymer emulsion (APE) was prepared by free radical polymerization using methacryloxyethyl trimethyl ammonium chloride (DMC), 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulfonate (AMPS), lauryl methacrylate (LMA), dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA) as monomers. And in order to improve the lubricating property, APE was further compounded with castor oil to obtain an amphoteric fatliquoring agent (named COAPE). Comprehensive characterization showed that the amphoteric (pI=8.22) and amphiphilic APE could reduce the surface tension of water to 38.6 mN/m. The fatliquoring process was controlled by ingenious regulation of pH based on isoelectric points (pIs) of APE and SATL. In the initial stage, the pH of the bath was adjusted to be lower than the pIs of APE and SATL, amphoteric polymer molecules could easily penetrate into SATL leather as they are all positively charged. While during the fixing stage, the pH of the bath was adjusted between the pIs of APE and SATL, so the electrostatic interaction between amphoteric polymer molecules and SATL leather, as well as the aggregation of amphoteric polymers can promote their combination synergistically. As a fatliquoring agent, the application of COAPE demonstrated that its absorpotion rate (90.5%) was much higher than anionic commercial fatliquoring agent (63.2%), thus imparting SATL leather better softness (6.5 mm), elongation at break (95.5%) and tensile strength (11.6 N/mm2). These findings therefore provided scientific basis and technical support for the application of amphoteric materials to silicic acid-modified collagen matrix and would promote the practical application of silicic acid-based chrome-free tanning technology