Proteases to improve the mechanical characteristics of durable press finished cotton fabrics

Abstract

N-Methylol reagents are conventional crosslinking agents that are still widely used in textile industry to produce crease-resistant cotton fabrics. In this work serine proteases were used to recover the strength of fabrics, crosslinked with N-hydroxymethylacrylamide. Nearly one half of the strength loss of rosslinked cotton fabrics could be restored after protease treatment, while the wrinkle recovery angle (WRA) decreased only slightly. The enzymatic hydrolysis of the amide cross-links in the durable pressed cellulose was confirmed by FT-IR analysis and dyeability with an acid dye. Effect of protease concentration on the tensile strength recovery, WRAand acid dye dyeability at 30 min reaction time.