Treatment and optimization of unconventional heating to enhance the printability of Rami fabric by using Brewer’s Yeast enzyme

Abstract

Treatment and optimization of a non-traditional heating to enhancement the printability of Rami fabric by using Brewer’s Yeast enzyme was studied. The treatment of raw and semi-finished ramie fabrics was submitted to innovative treatment using microwave irradiation and under a variety of conditions. Variables studies including yeast concentration, duration of treatment, and treated temperature to optimize the treatment condition. Conditional changes in the innovatively treated fabric vis-à-vis those of untreated fabric were presented. The obtained results showed that the innovative treatment process using microwave irradiation consumes less time and energy. Besides that, there is an enhancement of physical and chemical properties of fabrics under study, which leads to enhancement of its printability with the reactive dye. The treated, as well as untreated fabrics, were characterized by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The effect of treatment with Brewer’s Yeast enzyme coupled with microwave irradiation on physical and mechanical properties was investigated by using X-ray analysis. The effects of treatment with yeast enzyme on the multifunctional properties of the fibers including coloration, and antibacterial activity for E. coli as an example for gram-negative and S. aureus as an example of gram-positive bacteria were evaluated. The overall results point out that, the treated fabrics exhibited excellent color fastness as well as good antibacterial if compared to the untreated fabrics, in straightforward, the procedure adopted for fabricating these multifunctional ramie fabrics is environmentally friendly beside time and energy-saving.