Effect of enzymatic pretreatment on flame-retardant finishing of wool fabric

Wool fabrics were pretreated with proteases Savinase,followed by zirconium flame retardant finishing.The enhancement of flame-retardant effect of wool via Savinase pretreatment was studied and the performance of the finished wool fabrics was determined.The comparison of FT-IR spectrograms,scanning electron microscopy(SEM) analysis of the ignition residues and thermogravimetric analysis of the fabrics before and after flame-retardant finishing confirmed that Savinase protease pretreatment of wool can destroy the surface structure of the fiber to some extent and facilitate the adsorption of flame retardants onto wool fibers.Enzymatic pretreatment efficiently decreased the char length of flam-retardant finished fabrics after vertical burning,and the limiting oxygen index(LOI) increased by 5.6%.These results showed that protease pretreatment further improve the flame-retardant effect of wool fabrics.