ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Sodium citrate as an eco-friendly complexing agent for the bioscouring treatment of the cellulosic/lignocellulosic fabrics

Mihaela Dochia, Monica Pustianu, Cristian Moisă, Dorina Chambre, and Simona Gavrilaş

“Aurel Vlaicu” University of Arad, Arad, Romania

E-mail: simona2213@yahoo.com

Abstract: A 50% of cotton–50% of flax fabric was subjected to an enzymatic treatment (bioscouring) in ultrasound for removing the compounds which could negatively affect the further specific technological processes as whitening and dyeing. During the scouring process, some parameters of the fabrics are improved. Even EDTA is usually used as a chelating agent in the pretreatments of the fabrics, recent studies aimed to identify new biodegradable complexing agents. In this study, we present the results obtained for bioscouring treatment of the cellulosic/lignocellulosic fabrics in the presence of sodium citrate as a complexing agent. The treatments were made in 0.1 M phosphate buffer of pH 8 and ultrasound media. The samples were immersed in an aliquot containing the commercial pectinolytic product BEISOL PRO, Denimcol Wash-RGN as a surfactant and sodium citrate or EDTA (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid). The reactions were conducted by varying the enzyme concentration and action time using a central, rotatable second-order compound program. All the parameters determined after bioscouring [weight loss, hydrophilicity, whiteness index, yellowness index, tensile strength, elongation at break, the relative absorbance (A₁₇₃₁) from FT-IR spectra, color strength (K/S) and color difference (ΔE*ab)] of the investigated samples showed in the case of sodium citrate (an eco-friendly biodegradable compound) treatments better or comparable values to treatments conducted using EDTA (non-biodegradable compound).

Keywords: Flax–cotton fabrics ; Bioscouring ; Complexing agents ; Ultrasound ; Pectinolytic product 

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1007/s11696-018-0455-1

Chemical Papers 72 (8) 1881–1888 (2018)