Knitted wool fabrics were treated with sodium sulphite in an isopropanol/water medium in the presence or absence of a cationic surfactant to promote shrink resistance in wool fibers. The organic solvent and the cationic surfactant allow the SO 3 = anions to react with specific cystine residues, promoting as well some changes in the physicochemical properties of the wool, which prevent shrinkage.

The use of sodium methoxide or sodium hydroxide at low concentrations in a 2- propanol medium can be considered as a treatment for substantial shrinkage reduction in wool fabrics. In order to determine which experimental conditions are the most closely related to the shrink-resist effect, we studied the influence of water content, reagent concentration, and treatment time, as well as the percent shrinkage, whiteness index, alkali solubility, cystine content, and reagent exhaustion. The results show that the presence of water in this kind of treatment is especially important. Different effects on wool fabrics are obtained with sodium methoxide treatments in a 2-propanol me dium, depending on whether water is present in either the treatment liquor or the fibers.

The presence of glycolipids on wool fibers has been detected by analyzing the solubilized material when wool is treated with different organic solvents selected to remove internal lipids. One of these has been isolated and identified as a glucosilceramide. These compounds are thought to contribute to the bilayer structure that may be present in the β-layers of the cell membrane complex.

We have studied the pilling performance and electrostatic discharge behavior of knitted wool fabrics subjected to different chemical treatments involving quatemized amphiphilic peptides. We observed a marked improvement in both parameters in samples treated with reactive agents in the presence of these amphiphile molecules. Also, we investigated the role of these peptides in preventing pill formation and de creasing the electrostatic discharge time.