STUDY ON THE BIOSCOURING TREATMENT OF 50 % OF HEMP + 50 % OF COTTON FABRICS

Abstract

This work presents the study of the Bioscouring treatment applied on 50 % of hemp + 50 % of cotton blended materials. The goal of the treatment was the removing of morphological impurities present in cotton and hemp fibers in order to obtain cleaner materials with better properties. For enzymatic treatments different concentrations (1-3 % o.w.f) from a commercial product named Beisol PRO (a mixture of enzymes pectinases) were used. The reaction media was made of phosfate buffer solution of 0.1 M and pH 8. (sodium phosfate/disodium phosphate), 2 g/L sodium citrate (complexing agent) and 0.5 % Denimcol Wash RGN (wetting agent). All the experiments were carried out after a central, rotatable second order compound program with two independent variables: enzyme concentration (concentrations between 1-3 % o.w.f) and treatment time (15-55 minutes) at 20:1 liquid to fabric ratio and a temperature of 55 0C. The reatment efficiency has been verified by the following analyses: weight loss, hydrophilicity, whiteness degree, yellowness degree, crystallinity, tensile strength, elongation at break, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), spectrophotometric analysis in CIELAB system of the samples dyed with alizarin dye. After all the investigations it was found that the bioscouring procedure of 50 % of hemp + 50 % of cotton blended materials conducted to a proper removal of the morphological impurities without affecting the internal structure of cellulose or any significant degradation of the material.

Keywords

• hemp/cotton material
• bioscouring treatment
• enzymatic commercial product
• weight loss
• hydrophilicity
• whiteness degree