Abstract:

To improve the wettability of wool surface by lipid removal and the efficacy of succeeding proteolytic reaction by Savinase in aqueous phase, the effects of surfactant, cutinase concentrations and others in reverse micelles on wettability, weight loss and alkaline solubility of wool fabrics were studied. The results indicated that the protease-treated wool fabrics presented desirable wettability and acceptable fiber damages when pretreated with 2%(o.w.f) of cutinase in the reverse micelles (the volume ratio of cyclohexane, alcohol and Tween-80 was 5:1:1, and the molar ratio of H2O and Tween-80 was 25). The result from amino acid analysis showed that the relative mass concentration of cystine decreased remarkedly after the combination of cutinase and protease treatments. SEM images further proved that the combined enzymatic process led to a more satisfactory removal of scales from wool surface.