Abstract:

The goal of this study was to improve the effect of enzymatic antifelting treatment of wool via a novel keratinase from Bacillus subtilis and a Savinase protease. The influence of two-step enzymatic process on the weight loss of wool was investigated. The results indicated that keratinase treatment alone did not lead to obvious weight loss. However, it did promote the following protease treatment. In comparison with the conventional oxdition-protease process, the keratinase-cutinase process endowed wool fabrics with a bit lower weight loss, better wettability and dyeability as well as less fiber damage. The data from amino acid analysis indicated that the relative mass concentration of cystine for the keratinase-protease treated wool was lower than that of the oxidation-protease treated wool, which revealed that the keratinase treatment might promote the reduction of Cys–S-S-Cys in cuticle scales and make the succeeding protease treatment occur efficiently from the underlying protein layer of wool surface.