Thiol-Based Ionic Liquid: An Efficient Approach for Improving Hydrophilic Performance of Wool

ABSTRACT

Research suggests that to eliminate undesirable effects of the scale layer, natural wool needs to be surface-modified before further application to textile manufacture, obtaining better properties of shrink-resistance, washing/felting and dyeing. However, previous methods exhibited some disadvantages, such as the adsorbable organic halogens (AOX) pollution from chloride treatment and severe fiber damage caused by enzyme treatment. Therefore, thiol-based ionic liquid was introduced onto the surface modification of wool to counter these defects. In this modification process, the surface modification was controlled on the wool surface using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with evaluation of the effects of cleavage of disulfide bonds ascertained by the X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) results. The solubility in alkali and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectra further indicated that the process could prevent main body damage of the fiber, the decreased content of the α-helix structure was evaluated from X-ray diffraction (XRD) and differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) curves. Furthermore, the hydrophilic performance of the modified wool, including wettability and the dye-ability, revealed an apparent enhancement compared to that of raw wool. In a summary, the thiol-based ionic liquid approach can efficiently improve hydrophilic properties of wool, and has the potential for large-scale production.

摘要

研究表明, 为了消除鳞片层的不良影响, 天然羊毛在进一步应用于纺织制造之前需要进行表面改性, 以获得更好的抗收缩、洗涤/毡缩和染色性能. 然而, 以前的方法存在一些缺点, 如氯化物处理会造成可吸附有机卤素 (AOX) 污染, 酶处理会造成严重的纤维损伤. 因此, 引入硫醇基离子液体对羊毛进行表面改性以克服这些缺陷. 在此改性过程中, 使用扫描电子显微镜 (SEM) 在羊毛表面控制表面改性, 并通过X射线能量色散光谱 (EDS) 结果评估二硫键断裂的影响. 碱的溶解度和傅里叶变换红外光谱 (FTIR) 进一步表明, 该工艺可以防止纤维的主体损伤, 通过X射线衍射 (XRD) 和差示扫描量热仪 (DSC) 曲线评估了α-螺旋结构含量的降低. 此外, 与原毛相比, 改性羊毛的亲水性能 (包括润湿性和染色性) 表现出明显的增强. 综上所述, 硫醇基离子液体法可以有效改善羊毛的亲水性能, 具有大规模生产的潜力.

KEYWORDS:

• Thiol groups
• ionic liquid
• wool
• hydrophilic performance
• dye
• surface modification

关键词:

• 巯基
• 离子液体
• 羊毛
• 亲水性能
• 染料
• 表面改性

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51673087); National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFB0309200); Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (JUSRP51717A); Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province (KYCX20_1784, KYCX17_1436). Thanks for the help from International Joint Research Laboratory for Eco-Textile Technology at Jiangnan University.