Protease treatment of wool fabrics in reverse micelle system

The protease reverse micelle system based on Tween-80/cyclohexane was prepared to study its effect on wool.The influence of surfactant dosage,n(H_2O)/n(Tween-80),temperature and duration of treatment on the weighting loss percentage of the wool in the protease reverse micelle system was investigated.The results indicated that the efficiency of enzymatic degradation of wool fabrics reached the maximum under the optimum condition as follows: v(cyclohexane)∶v(alcohol)∶v(Tween-80) of(5∶1∶1),n(H_2O)/n(Tween-80) of 18,incubating temperature of(55 ℃) and time of(4 h.) Compared with the samples treated in water system at the same protease concentration,the wool fabric incubated in reverse micelles achieved lower weight loss but higher dye-uptake rate.This indicated the enzymatic reaction in micellar system mainly occurred in the cuticle scales of wool fibers.SEM images implied similar removals of wool scales obtained in reverse micelles and water systems,but the eroding degree of wool scales in water system seemed deeper.