Superheated Water Hydrolyzed Keratin: A New Application as a Foaming Agent in Foam Dyeing of Cotton and Wool Fabrics

Abstract

A large amount of wool produced in the EU region is coarse and of low quality. The limited or nonutilization of such coarse wool leads to landfilling causing environmental pollution. In this paper, we studied the properties of keratin hydrolyzate, produced by a sustainable hydrolysis process, to be used as a foaming agent in foam dyeing of cotton and wool fabrics. This is a preliminary step on the way to find possible applications which overcome the environmental problem of wool waste and byproducts. We report for the first time the use of keratin hydrolyzate as a foaming auxiliary in the textile dyeing process. The surface tension, molecular weight, foam stability, blow ratio, and bubble size of keratin hydrolyzate in aqueous solutions with and without dyeing auxiliaries were determined. The dyeing influential parameter such as wet pickup was studied to identify their effect on dye fixation and color strength. The foam dyeing was compared with conventional cold-pad batch and pad-steam processes for cotto...