Abstract
A new process for feltproofing of wool fibers based on the biopolymer sericin is reported. The susceptibility of wool to sericin has been enhanced by creation of new active sites along the wool keratin molecules, such as cysteic acid and S-cystine sulphonate residues, by pretreatment with hydrogen peroxide and sodium sulphite. The sericin-combining capacity of wool has been even enhanced by carrying out the reaction in the presence of different crosslinkersnamely dimethylol dihydroxy ethylene urea, dimethyl dihyroxy ethylene urea, and epichlorohydrin, which are able to link sericin with the available sites of wool. The effect of these treatments on some of the inherent properties of wool as well as on its morphological structure is also reported. The felting resistance of wool tops treated with the system H2O2 /Na2SO3/sericin/ECH (felt ball density 0.045 g /cm3) is close to that of the machine washable wool obtained commercially (felt ball density 0.039 g /cm3).
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