Nano-Tex, Inc.

Dan B Millward

David S Soane

Matthew R Linford

William Ware, Jr

David A Offord

Ryan Lau

Eric G Green

Lael Erskine

This invention is directed to fabric finishes or treatment preparations for nylon, polyester, and other textile and fibrous substrate materials that will render them hydrophilic. The finishes of the invention are comprised primarily of polymers that contain carboxyl groups, salts of carboxyl groups, or moieties that can be converted to carboxyl groups by some chemical reaction.

Hydrophilic finish for fibrous substrates

This invention is directed to treatments for dyed textile goods that will improve their fastness properties. More particularly, the invention is directed to certain fixatives that, when placed on the dyed textile, allow the dye to be permanently or substantially permanently affixed to the fabric. The dye-reactive fixative comprises a water-soluble or water-dispersible polymer or oligomer having reactive groups that react with a dye on a dyed web to affix the dye to the web.

Dye fixatives

This invention is directed to preparations useful for the permanent or substantially permanent treatment of textiles and other webs. More particularly, the preparations of the invention comprise an agent or other payload surrounded by or contained within a polymeric encapsulator that is reactive to webs, to give textile-reactive nanoparticles. By &ldquo;textile-reactive&rdquo; is meant that the payload nanoparticle will form a chemical covalent bond with the fiber, yarn, fabric, textile, finished goods (including apparel), or other web or substrate to be treated. The polymeric encapsulator of the payload nanoparticle has a surface that includes functional groups for binding or attachment to the fibers of the textiles or other webs to be treated, to provide permanent attachment of the payload to the textiles. Alternatively, the surface of the nanoparticle includes functional groups that can bind to a linker molecule that will in turn bind or attach the nanoparticle to the fiber. This invention is further directed to the fibers, yarns, fabrics, other textiles, or finished goods treated with the textile-reactive nanoparticles. Such textiles and webs exhibit a greatly improved retention or durability of the payload agent and its activity, even after multiple washings.

Nanoparticle-based permanent treatments for textiles

The invention is directed to a hybrid polymer material or system that combines naturally occurring building blocks with synthetic building blocks. The sets of naturally occurring and synthetic building blocks are mixed and joined on a molecular or nanoscopic level to give homogeneous or microphase-separated morphologies to the resulting mixed polymer system. These hybrid polymers combine the comfort attributes of natural materials with the robustness and design properties of synthetic materials.

Hybrid polymer materials

The present invention is directed to microemulsion techniques for rapidly preparing photochromic glass nanoparticles and to the photochromic glass nanoparticles so prepared. More particularly, the method of the invention comprises the combination of two microemulsions, one containing a water-soluble silver salt and a glass precursor and the other containing a halide salt and an initiator for glass formation, which process rapidly yields silver halide particles. This invention gives nanometer-sized silver halide particles embedded in glass, thus providing photochromic glass nanoparticles without further annealing, or at most mild annealing. These nanoparticles are valuable as added components to any macro-material that one might wish to have photochromic properties. The particles would impart photochromism while not affecting the physical properties of the material.

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Alameda, CA, United States of America

Dan B Millward