Study on Improvement in Handle Properties of Wool/Cotton Union Fabric by Enzyme Treatment and Subsequent Polysiloxane-based Combination Finishing

摘要

The present study presents the effect of protease/lipase enzyme pretreatment followed by polysiloxane based combination finishing on handle properties of wool: cotton union was studied. Union fabric was pre-treated with Savinase 16.0L Ex/Lipolase 100T enzyme individually, followed by finishing with six different polysiloxane based combinations by pad-dry-cure method. The moisture property, handle property and mechanical properties of finished and unfinished were evaluated as per standard procedure. The results inferred that both enzymes improve the handle of the union fabric irrespective of their nature and subsequent combination finishing further improves the handle. The extent of improvement depends on the nature of finishing combination applied, in which combination of nano, micro, macro polysiloxane with a cationic softener (Sandoperm-SEl+Ceraperm-MW+Ceraperm-UP+Sandosoft-SPG) on Savinase treated fabric shows better hand value (3.3) than others (<3.1). It is concluded that combination finish on Savinase treated union fabric imparts better handle properties than corresponding Lipolase treated ones and finished-only fabrics.