Effect of Consolidation with Alanine and Glutaraldehyde on the Properties of Fragile Wool Fabrics

In this paper, alanine which was homologous with wool fibers and the crosslinker glutaraldehyde were used to consolidate fragile wool fabrics. As a bifunctional crosslinker, glutaraldehyde can react with amine groups both in wool and alanine. With glutaraldehyde crosslinking at different concentrations, the breaking strength, molecular structure and surface morphology of the wool were investigated. As a consequence, the consolidation with alanine and glutaraldehyde led to a positive effect on the mechanical properties of fragile wool fabrics, resulting in increased breaking strength. However, the results of SEM and FTIR showed that the consolidation had no obvious influence on the morphology and chemical structure of fragile wool fabrics. © (2014) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland.