New enzyme-based process direction to prevent wool shrinking without substantial tensile strength loss.

Area of Science:

• Textile Chemistry
• Biotechnology
• Materials Science

Background:

• Traditional enzymatic wool processing using proteases often leads to significant tensile strength loss.
• Enzyme diffusion into the wool fiber interior causes damage to the fiber structure.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a new enzymatic process for producing machine-washable wool with retained quality.
• To mitigate tensile strength loss associated with protease enzyme application in wool treatment.

Main Methods:

• Targeting enzymatic activity to the wool fiber's outer surface scales.
• Improving the susceptibility of outer scale proteins to proteolytic degradation.
• Pretreating wool with hydrogen peroxide under alkaline pH and high salt concentrations.

Main Results:

• Enzymatic activity was successfully localized to the exterior of wool fibers.
• Preservation of wool tensile strength was achieved during the enzymatic treatment.
• The process yields machine-washable wool with acceptable quality.

Conclusions:

• The described pretreatment method effectively prevents enzyme diffusion into wool fibers.
• This approach offers a viable solution for producing high-quality, machine-washable wool textiles.
• Enzymatic modification of wool can be optimized to balance functionality and material integrity.