Effects of cutinase on environmentally acceptable shrink-resistant finish of wool

To improve the current situation that the conventional wool shrink-resistant process can not meet the ecological requirements,this paper focused on the shrink-resistant finishing of gabardine and valitin by the eco-friendly combination of H2O2/cutinase/protease.The results showed that the use of cutinase obviously enhanced the shrink-resistant effect.And the shrinkage rates of gabardine and valitin after finishing were 0.25% and 6.5%,respectively,which met the IWS standard of machine-washable.Moreover,the tests of low temperature dye-uptake rate and alkaline solubility showed that compared with the control,the cutinase treated sample had higher dye-uptake rate and lower alkaline solubility,which suggested that cutinase could make the scales on wool surface more loose so that an action similar to orientation occurred in the scales while subsequent protease treatment was performed,thus facilitating the concentrated treatment of scales by protease and reducing the hydrolysis of woolen cortex by protease.FT-IR analysis proved that cuitnase can hydrolyse the lipids on the surface of wool scales in this combination treatment.