Abstract

The influence of the system containing NaOH, Na2S, and salt such as NaC1, Na,S04orNa2HPO4on the properties of pelt and the leather produced was investigated. It was established that the unhairing method influences chemical, physical and mechanical properties of pelt and leather. These properties depend not only on the method of unhairing (liming or lime-free unhairing) but on the salt used for lime-free unhairing. too. As collagen’s chemical and physical changes could be reflected in its supermolecular structure, X-ray diffraction and IR-spectroscopy analyses of pelt and leather were carried out. The analyses show that the structure of pelt and leather depends on the unhairing method and it varies—differences in supermolecular structure are observed but there are no major differences in the main protein chain.