Annals of the University of Oradea: Fascicle of Textiles, Leatherwork (May 2019)
EFFICIENCY ASSESSMENT OF THE DIFFERENT SCOURING CONDITIONS OF COTTON MATERIALS BY RUTHENIUM RED DYEING
Abstract
Natural fibres are subjected to scouring treatment in order to remove different impurities like waxes, organic acids, pigments and pectins. Pectines are found in the plant cell walls. From the chemical point of view are polysaccharides. The modern trends in different industrial sectors are based on the utilisation of eco friendly treatments to remove them. In our case, the classical alkaline procedure was substituted by an enzymatic one. On 100 % of cotton samples were applied different bioscouring treatments with a pectinases mixture in different conditions. All the bioscouring treatments were developed in presence of ultrasound (45 KHz). The reaction bath contained a commercial pectinolytic product, a complexing agent and a washing agent. There were used diffent enzyme concentratios and the treatment time was variable. To determine the samples behavior toward the enzymes action, the residual pectin was quantified. Ruthenium red dye was chosen since it is considered to be a specific one for binding pectin presented in the fibres. The measurements were done spectrophotometrically with a Datacolor 500 spectrophotometer and the colour strength ratio [K/S] was obtained by measuring the reflectance at 530 nm. The results obtain in case of each treatment were compared with the one determined for the untreated sample, which was considered to have the highest amount of pectin.
