Wheat starch, gum arabic and chitosan biopolymer treatment of wool fabric for improved shrink resistance finishing

Abstract

The major concerns of today's textile wet processing are large use of chemicals and toxic effluents. Eco-friendly sustainable ways of textile processing which are safe to health and environment are receiving much attention. Wool fabric suffers from irreversible shrinkage during washing. In this study, sustainable biopolymers have been utilized to impart shrink resistance finish to wool fabric without affecting the original properties of the fabric. The wool fabric was coated with gum arabic, chitosan, and wheat starch biopolymers. The presence of biopolymers on the wool fabrics was confirmed by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM). The tensile, bending, friction, color strength, yellowness index and whiteness index was measured along with shrink resistance of wool fabric before and after the biopolymer treatment. The biopolymer treatment significantly reduced the area shrinkage (<4%) of wool fabric. The biopolymer coating could be a viable and sustainable alternative to conventional treatments for developing shrink-resistant wool fabric with no adverse effect on fabric properties.