Fibrillation of silk fibers, its treatment method and producing of silk paper

Abstract

Fibrillation and a treatment method in which silk fibers are split into many fine and/or thin fibers was studied with the purpose of obtaining fibrillated fibers and tracing production of paper made from silk fibers. In this paper, the influence of alkali on fibrillation in turning silk fibers into dispersed water suitable for tracing paper production was examined. It was found that a solution containing a sodium hydroxide concentration of approximately 2.0-2.2% was the optimum amount for beating of silk fibers in the solution immersed for 24 hours at room temperature. Machines such as a beater or mill were found to too severely beat the silk fibers. Hand beating methods using a wooden or ceramicstick were found to produce much better results regarding state of the beaten silk fibers, fiber water dispersion and drainage rate in paper processing. Splitting of fine and/or thin fibers, however, could not be closely observed, even for samples treated with the 2.0-2.2% sodium hydroxide solution.