Abstract:
This research concerned a treatment of silk and nylon fabrics with amorphous silk containing in a prepared silk solution. The silk solution was prepared by dissolving silk powder in a mixed solution containing ethanol, water and calcium chloride at a weight ratio of 1:5:6:8 (respectively), at 50 degrees celsius for hours. Fourier Transform Infrared analysis confirmed that the solution contained silk while XRD spectra showed an existence of silk in the solution. The silk solution was applied on both silk fabric and nylon fabric by a padding method to obtain 70-80% wet pick up. Then the solution was fixed on the fabric by drying at 80 degrees celsius for 5 minutes and curing at 110 degrees celsius for 2 minutes. It was found that the yellowness, the color strength and the moisture content of the silk fabric remained unchange after the treatment. Its wrinkle recovery angle and tear strength decreased while the fabric stiffness increased and this was due to the existence of calcium chloride on the treated fabric, confirmed by the analytical scanning electron microscopy and X-Ray fluorescence analysis. Nylon fabric showed an increase of whiteness after the treatment while its wrinkle recovery angle and tear strength decreased due to an increase of the fabric stiffness. This treatment did not change the color strength and the moisture content of the nylon fabric.