Abstract

The ability of such alkalis as calcium, barium, sodium and potassium hydroxides and sodium metasilicate to immunize wool was investigated. Sodium silicate was confirmed as an effective immunization agent whose efficiency increases with increased treatment duration and treatment solution concentration. Sodium silicate lacks a divalent cation and acts at pH13. This allows the assumption that the immunization mechanism is other than that of calcium or barium hydroxide. Differential scanning calorimetry and infrared spectroscopy analysis results show the differences in hair structure after treatment by various alkalis. Research work is in progress to clarify the mechanism of the hair immunization by sodium silicate and to develop a unhairing process with hair immunization which is suitable for leather processing