Effects of Neutral Detergent on Strength and Elongation of Wool Fibers Shrink-Proofed with Chlorine

Abstract

Kroy-treated wool and dichlorocyanuric acid treated wool (DCCA-treated wool) were selected for wool fibers shrink-proofed with chlorine. The laundering treatment with domestic neutral detergent including non-ionic surfactant made the breaking strength and elongation decrease greatly for DCCA-treated wool at initial laundering treatment, but for Kroy-treated wool as well as intact wool, it made the elongation decrease gradually with increase of the laundering treatment times. After 5 times laundering treating each wool sample, the value of final elongation became almost equal in the value of the elongation of each wool sample which is pretreated with isopropanol (IPA) aqueous solution. The elongation of each wool sample which was pretreated with IPA aqueous solution hardly changed even if the laundering treatment times increased. These experiments showed that non-ionic surfactant including neutral detergent acted like IPA aqueous solution to wool fibers, and It was thought that the decrease of the breaking strength and elongation of wool by the laundering treatment with neutral detergent was dependent on the easiness of the extraction of the cell membrane complex (CMC) component of wool, which had been deteriorated by the each shrinkproof process with chlorine, by non-ionic surfactant.