COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE CHELATING AGENTS INFLUENCE ON THE WEIGHT LOSS OF COTTON FABRICS DURING ENZYMATIC SCOURING

Abstract

The proposed study offers an alternative to classical cotton fabrics scouring treatment. It is based on reagents and process utilization with low environmental impact. The experimental design studies the weight loss of cotton fabric during enzymatic scouring in ultrasound media due to the variation of two independent factors at five levels: enzyme concentration weight over fiber (1, 1.3, 2, 2.7, and 3 %) and treatment time (15, 21, 35, 49 and 55 min.), using two complexing agents individually (EDTA or sodium citrate at 2g/L). The weight loss of cotton fabric (dependent variable) was expressed in the percentage from the initial weight. The polynomial equations obtained by multiple regression analysis indicate that the influence of the two factors on the studied intervals decreases in order: time>enzyme concentration when EDTA is used, and vice versa in the case of sodium citrate. In the studied intervals of the variables, the weight loss varies between 0.43-2.40 % in the EDTA version and 0.77-1.79 % in the sodium citrate version. Response surface graphics for the two variants of complexants show how much enzyme concentration and time can be reduced in the process to obtain a suitable scouring treatment. Analyzing the obtained results, we consider sodium citrate a viable alternative for bioscouring from technological and environmental aspects.