Effects of environmentally friendly degumming methods on some surface properties, physical performances and dyeing behaviour of silk fabrics

Abstract

In this paper the effect of degumming processes on the physical performance, surface properties and colour coordinates of silk fabrics at high temperature and enzymatically, which was developed as an alternative to conventional method, has been investigated. Degummed silk fabrics were compared in terms of weight loss, bending length, tear and breaking strength, surface roughness and friction coefficient. After these tests, acid dyeing was performed to observe different degumming methods effect on dyeing behaviour of degummed silk fabric. The colour coordinates were evaluated by L*. a*, b*, C*, h(0), K/S. and Delta E* values. The results revealed that despite insignificant differences between conventional and alternative methods in terms of physical performance and surface properties, the conventional method gave slightly better results than the others. There were no significant differences in colour depth between the two processes. These reasons showed that the alternative method could be used instead of the traditional method and a more sustainable process has been designed.