Abstract

Acrylic-acrylic long-chain ester amphiphilic copolymers are a class of leather retanning and fatliquoring materials with superior properties. However, these types of copolymers lack reactive groups and possess weak binding ability to organically-tanned leather. In this paper, a terpolymer Poly(AA-LA-GMA) containing reactive epoxy groups was prepared by emulsion copolymerisation of acrylic acid (AA), dodecyl acrylate (LA) and glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) monomers. The effect of the GMA content on its binding ability to leather fibres and its fatliquoring properties was investigated. The results showed that the introduction of the epoxy group can significantly improve the combination of copolymer with glutaraldehyde-tanned leather. When the content of GMA monomer reached 10% of the total monomer amount (mol), the dichloromethane extraction rate and fogging value of the fatliquored leather were reduced by about 34% and 53%, respectively. And the excellent binding ability improved the softness and tear strength of the fatliquored leather.