Selective enzymatic modification of wool/polyester blended fabrics for surface patterning

Abstract

An enzyme-based process was investigated to achieve surface patterning of fabrics as an alternative to conventional chemical processes. In the current study, the enzyme protease was employed to selectively modify a wool/polyester blended fabric to impart decorative surface effects. Controlled protease processing of the blended fabric dyed with Lanasol Blue CE enabled the degradation and removal of the dyed wool fibre component from the fabric blend, resulting in novel fading and differential fabric relief due to degradation of wool, revealing the undyed polyester component after enzyme treatment. A 38.5% weight loss was achieved, therefore 85.6% of the wool in the 45/55% wool/polyester blended fabric was removed from the structure. The activity of protease is highly specific, therefore, it caused no damage to the polyester component. The control studies led to the development of surface pattern designs using the enzyme process, achieving effects similar to current processes such as devoré and discharge printing. This novel enzyme process permits the replacement of harsh chemicals used in current surface patterning processes with small doses of biodegradable enzymes.

Innovative Technologies for Sustainable Textile Coloration, Patterning, and Surface Effects

“…In this study, the enzyme protease was employed to selectively modify a wool/polyester-blended fabric to impart decorative surface patterning [73]. A series of controlled experiments for studying the interaction between enzyme and substrate (a compound on which an enzyme exerts its catalytic effect) were undertaken to achieve either partial or complete removal of the dyed wool fibre component with a view to revealing undyed polyester yarns which formed part of the fabric blend, resulting in novel fading and differential fabric relief (Table 1).…”

“…Results successfully demonstrated a diverse range of highly individual patterns could be generated with the use of varying resist techniques trialled with enzyme processing [70,73]. The resulting visual aesthetic qualities achieved were heavily governed by the techniques, which controlled the degree of liquor accessibility and penetration, and consequently the level of wool degradation or decolourization.…”

Enhancing dye adsorption of wool by controlled and facile surface modification using sodium bisulphite

“…Wool, being a renewable natural protein fibre, is an attractive alternative to petroleum-based fibre, such as polyester polymer, owing to its properties of warmness, skin-friendliness and abrasive resistance. 1 However, natural wool has poor dyeability and is susceptible to shrinkage during washing as a result of its surface dense scale layer. 2,3 To overcome these shortcomings, surface modification of wool is necessary.…”

Surface Functionalization of Wool via Microbial-Transglutaminase as Bio-Mordant to Improve Dyeability with Madder in the Presence of Alum

“…To overcome these drawbacks, diverse techniques, such as cationization, plasma, enzyme, gamma, and microwave treatments, were employed for pretreatment of various textile fibers [4,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. Fundamentally, the adhesion of natural dyes to natural fibers without any treatment, mordanting, or fixation is inferior [21][22][23][24].…”

“…Alum is the most abundant metal salt in the earth, which is commonly used and considered as a safe mordant [26]. On the other hand, a cost-effective substitution way to produce natural colorants is ecological enzymatic natural dyeing [13,[27][28][29][30][31][32] . Several studies have been reported on the enzymatic treatment of textile fibers to take advantage of their lower energy consumption and environmentally friendly processes in order to enhance dyeability, physical, and mechanical properties [23,[33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40].…”