Effect of silk sericin pre-treatment on dyeability of woollen fabric

Silk fibres consist of sericin and fibroin. 20–25% of silk fibre is sericin. Sericin is biodegradable, antibacterial, and UV resistant. In this study, silk sericin protein was applied to wool fabric as a pre-treatment. Wool fabrics pre-treated with silk sericin were dyed with Eriofast Red B and Eriofast Blue 3R dyestuffs. Colour and reflectance measurements of the dyed wool samples were carried out. Washing, rubbing, light fastness properties were explored. Moreover, hydrophilicity, nitrogen content (Kjeldahl Method), FTIR and ESCA analysis were performed on the sericin applied wool fabric samples. Pre-treatment with sericin was found to increase the hydrophilicity level of wool fibres. Pre-treatment with silk sericin also increased the colour yield of wool fibre dyed with Eriofast Red B and Eriofast Blue 3R. It was determined that the wool fibre fabrics pre-treated with sericin displayed sufficient colour and colour fastness values even after dyeing at lower dyeing temperatures.

Inheritance of moisture content in greasy and clean wool and its relationship to other wool traits in Merinos

Moisture in greasy wool is associated with wool yellowing, fleece rot and fly strike, whereas the high moisture content of wool fabric is related to desired woollen fabric traits. This paper reports on a simple gravimetric method of determining greasy and clean wool moisture contents to determine fleece moisture heritability. The moisture index of greasy wool has a heritability of 0.37 ± 0.04 and phenotypic correlations of –0.31 ± 0.02 with yield, 0.69 ± 0.01 with suint index and 0.50 ± 0.01 with Methylene Blue absorption. The moisture index of greasy wool was strongly genetically correlated with yield (–0.48 ± 0.06), suint index (0.93 ± 0.03), Methylene Blue absorption (0.92 ± 0.03) but not significantly genetically correlated with clean wool moisture absorption (0.18 ± 044). Moisture absorption of clean wool has a very low heritability of 0.02 ± 0.03. The correlations between moisture index and suint index suggest that greasy fleece moisture index is primarily determined by suint index. The implications of variation in the moisture index of wool on fleece rot and fly strike are discussed.