Ozone-Gas Treatment of Wool and Silk Fabrics

In previous papers, we reported that various cellulosic, wool and silk fabrics were treated with ammonia-gas with regard to the gas phase processing of the fabrics. In this paper, ozone-gas treatment of the wool and silk fabrics was carried out. The effect of the treatment on surface modification, dyeing property, wetting, and laundering shrinkage were evaluated. Although the physical surface was almost unchanged from the SEM observation, the O1s intensity by the ESCA analysis of both fibers in relation to surface modification increased, especially for wool. As the results, wetting property was improved remarkably despite of no change of the moisture regain and water absorption. Nevertheless, laundering shrinkage decreased apparently. Furthermore, apparent dyeing rate was accelerated considerably for wool, whereas equilibrium dye uptake was almost unchanged by the treatment. Mechanical property of the wool fabric was almost no change by the ozone-gas treatment, while those of the silk fabric became a little crisp.