Abstract
Recently washable wool is strongly requested in order to avoid dry cleaning with chlorinated solvents such as perchloroethylene. So far wool top has been chlorinated for shrink proofing. However chlorination will be prohibited for AOX zero emission in the near future.
In this article wool fibers and fabrics were treated by pulse corona discharge, followed by two kinds of enzymes, protease and keratinase. The effects of pulse corona discharge pretreatment and enzyme concentrations on the shrinkage, strength, weigh loss, surface property, and handle of the fibers were investigated. It was found that the treatment of enzyme, in particular the keratinase, after the pulse corona discharge is very effective for shrinkage, weight loss, and strength compared to the enzyme treatment alone.
Scanning electron micrographs of wool surface after the treatment showed that the wool surface is treated uniformly with the enzymes, in particular the keratinase, after the pulse corona discharge, and the fibrillation of the fabrics reduces significantly. The dual treatment improves the shrinkage with little change of the strength and handle of the wool fabrics.
