Copper Soaps as Rot-Proofing Agents on Fabrics

Mildew- and Rot-Resistance of Textiles

“…Although &dquo;naphthenic acid&dquo; is a complex mixture of substances which undoubtedly varies in composition from one source to another, it has been common experience among workers in the field of fabric mildew preventives to find that copper naphthenates from various sources possess unusual fungicidal properties not common to most other copper compounds. Experimental work in the author's laboratory has consistently revealed this superiority [86,87], which, it is believed, may be attributed to fungicidal activity in the naphthenate component of the material [86]. This conclusion is already supported by data of several kinds [86] and it may be mentioned here as further evidence that a sample of nickel naphthenate showed distinctly greater fungicidal effectiveness in a soil-burial experiment in four different soils in the writer's laboratory than did one of nickel oleate, metal concentrations of 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, and 0.8 percents on an 8-ounce cotton duck allowing only 93,40,19, and 3 average percents of strength loss for the former compound as compared with 100, 100, 100, and 98 percents for the latter.…”

“…The effectiveness of copper naphthenate in pureculture, soil-burial, and soil-suspension fabric tests has been reported by various authors [2,16,17,34,50,51,86,87,131,132] . Although &dquo;naphthenic acid&dquo; is a complex mixture of substances which undoubtedly varies in composition from one source to another, it has been common experience among workers in the field of fabric mildew preventives to find that copper naphthenates from various sources possess unusual fungicidal properties not common to most other copper compounds.…”

“…Copper resinate and copper oleate have been used for some time in the preservation of fish nets 107] . Of these several compounds, all have proved to have less fungicidal effect per unit weight of copper on fabric than copper naphthenate [35,86,87]. A cuprammonium-creosote emulsion treatment was found highly effective in preventing rotting of sandbags in the experiments of Dean, Strickland, and Berard [35].…”

“…Most, and in some cases all, of the copper was lost from the fabric in 6 months of weather exposure, the chromium and iron appearing to have no tendency to improve copper retention. Fargher (42) Zinc naphthenate is less fungicidally active than copper naphthenate but fungicidally superior to the corresponding zinc oleate, &dquo;tallate,&dquo; or hydrogenated-resinate [86] exactly as copper naphthenate is fungicidally superior to these related copper soaps. Several mercury compounds have been used as mildew preventives on fabric in this country, perhaps the best known of these being a material whose chemical composition is said to be phenyl mercury triethanolammonium lactate.…”

Functional Finishing of Jute Textiles—An Overview in India

“…Previous studies indicated that 0.5-2% copper content gives maximum protection against rotting of jute products. The average life of the jute sandbags has increased to sixfold when treated with copper salts (Marsh et al 1944). Copper and Zinc naphthenate are also used as rot proof chemicals, while copper naphthenate would be undesirable because of their color and Zinc naphthenate is less fungicidally active than copper naphthenate.…”