Enzymatic treatment of wool fabrics - opportunity of the improvement on some physical and chemical properties of the fabrics

Abstract

The enzymatic treatment of textiles significantly improves some of their physicochemical properties as well as increases their aesthetic values and comfort of use. Enzymes are used in order to develop environmentally friendly processes by reducing the concentration of chemical agents, water and energy consumption. In the present study, an attempt was made to treat the wool fabric with different concentrations (1, 3, and 5 g/L) of protease enzyme and observed the effects on physical and chemical properties including softness, absorbency, pilling resistance, weight loss, tensile strength loss, water retention, felting shrinkage, alkali solubility and urea-bisulphite solubility of wool fabric. The results of pretreated and enzyme-treated samples are compared to those obtained for untreated wool fabric. Enzyme-treated wool fabrics showed improvement in softness, absorbency, pilling resistance and felting shrinkage and a slight increase in weight loss, tensile strength loss, alkali solubility and urea-bisulphite solubility, and decrease in water retention of the fabric.