Investigation of the Synthesis of a Novel Glcidyl Ether-amine Epoxy Tanning Agents and their Tanning Performance

Abstract

Isophorone diamine (IPDA) and epichlorohydrin (ECH) wereused to fabricate the epoxy tanning agents, and polyalcoholcompounds (glycerol, polyethylene glycol, ethylene glycol) wereemployed to introduce the ether bonds into the epoxy tanningagents to improve their compatibility with water. The preparedepoxy tanning agents were named IGE, IPE and IEE for theintroduction of glycerol, polyethylene glycol and ethylene glycol,respectively. FT-IR and 1H NMR analysis indicated that epoxygroups, ether bonds and hexatomic rings were successfullyintroduced into IGE, IPE and IEE. The tanning performances ofthe epoxy tanning agents were further evaluated in water,ethanol-50 (50% of ethanol in water) and ethanol-95 (95% ofethanol in water) medium, which suggested that ethanol-50 wasthe most favorable one for the epoxy tanning agents. The IGEtanned leather exhibited the highest shrinkage temperature of 83ºCin ethanol-50 due to its low viscosity, high epoxy value and widemolecular dispersion. Morphology observation indicated thatthe IGE tanned leather exhibited better dispersion of fibernetwork than that of IPE and IEE tanned leathers. These resultsillustrated that IGE was an appropriate tanning agent in waterethanolmedium, which could be considered as a candidate forthe organic tanning agents.