Cleanability of textile materials in liquid CO₂

Cleanability of well-characterised textile materials of different types – cotton, polyester and wool – in liquid carbon dioxide (CO2) have been systematically investigated under different process conditions. It was found that the soil removal, which is represented with the soiling additional density (SAD), strongly depends on the kind of investigated textile materials. The use of a commercial detergent significantly improved the cleanability of all textile materials under study and slightly reduced the redeposition of soil in the case of wool fabric. In addition, by using optical roughness analysis, some topographical changes in the fabric structure after cleaning were studied.