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Effects of ultrasonic laundering on the properties of silk fabrics

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Effects of ultrasonic laundering on the properties of silk fabrics

Mingbo Ma, Lixia You, Lican Chen and Wenlong Zhou
Textile Research Journal 2014 84: 2166 originally published online 12 June 2014
DOI: 10.1177/0040517514537370

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Original article
Textile Research Journal
2014, Vol. 84(20) 2166–2174

Effects of ultrasonic laundering on the ! The Author(s) 2014

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properties of silk fabrics DOI: 10.1177/0040517514537370
trj.sagepub.com

Mingbo Ma1, Lixia You1,2, Lican Chen1 and Wenlong Zhou1

Abstract
Silk fabric wrinkles or creases easily during conventional domestic machine laundering due to its poor wet resilience,
leading to an undesirable fabric appearance and difficulties in daily care. In this research, ultrasonic energy was used to
clean silk fabrics, aiming to improve their after-wash appearance. It was found that ultrasonic laundering performed much
better in removing common stains from silk fabrics and in maintaining the fabric appearance and dimensions compared to
machine laundering. Ultrasonic agitation caused a little more fading effect than that caused by mechanical agitation. After
15 laundering cycles, the K/S value of the fabric laundered by ultrasonic agitation was only 2.7% lower than that laundered
by washing machine, so the difference was not significant and could be acceptable. Ultrasonic laundering also resulted in
less fiber damage to silk fabrics. The investigation indicated that the introduction of ultrasonic agitation in laundering
could produce a significant benefit in the laundering of silk fabrics.

Keywords
silk, laundering, ultrasonic energy, crease, fiber damage, dimensional stability

Silk fabrics are universally popular for use in clothing,
and gained a positive reputation of being sensuous and
luxurious due to their fantastic properties, such as
being lustrous and having a soft and smooth texture,
high moisture absorbency and good elasticity.
However, silk textiles crease and dimensionally
deform easily during conventional home laundering.1–3
Fiber fractures in the form of fibrillation and degrada-
tion usually occur due to fabric rubbing during the
laundering process.1 This severely affects the appear-
ance and wear endurance of silk garments and leads
to considerable inconvenience in everyday use.
Durable press finishing of silk fabrics is not recom-
mended, even though it effectively improves the crease
resistance to laundering, because it results in fabric style
change and hand property loses.4–7 Dry cleaning of silk
fabrics, as we know, is expensive and is relatively inef-
fective at removing water-soluble stains, for example,
perspiration stains.8 Therefore, it is necessary to
develop appropriate and effective novel methods for
cleaning such delicate fabrics.
Ultrasonic energy has been widely used in the area of
hard surface cleaning in industries.8,9 Over the past 20
years, considerable efforts have been made in introdu-
cing ultrasonic energy to different textile wet processing
operations, especially in the field of bio-processing of
fabrics. Ultrasonic agitation of processing solutions has
been found to improve the productivity and/or effects
of these treatments, including enzymatic desizing,10
scouring11 and bleaching12,13 of cotton fabrics, enzy-
matic degumming of silk fabrics,14 scouring15,16 and
bleaching17 of raw wool fiber, as well as dyeing18–21
and finishing22 for a variety of fabrics. Ultrasonic
extraction procedures show considerable superiority
over conventional methods for constituent analysis of
the substances or chemicals on fibers or textiles, such as
multiple elements on cotton fibers,23 resinous binders
on an historic textile24 and formaldehyde residue on
textiles.25 Some interests have been reported in cleaning
1
Key Laboratory of Advanced Textile Materials and Manufacturing
Technology (Ministry of Education), Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, China
2
Feature-tec (Shanghai) Filtration Technology Co., Ltd, China
Corresponding author:
Wenlong Zhou, Key Laboratory of Advanced Textile Materials and
Manufacturing Technology (Ministry of Education), Zhejiang Sci-Tech
University, No.2 Street, Xiasha Higher Education District, Hangzhou,
Zhejiang 310018, China.
Email: wzhou@zstu.edu.cn

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Ma et al.
of different fabrics using ultrasonic energy in recent
years. Ultrasonic laundering can efficiently remove
blood stains from polyester/cotton-based medical sur-
gery gowns26 and remove soils from polyester and
cotton fabrics in a shorter time at a lower bath
ratio.27,28 Wool fabrics are known for easily felting
and the resultant shrinkage during home laundering.
However, a lower stain level, felting and area shrinkage
is observed when laundered with ultrasonic agitation.29
Ultrasonic laundering also has benefits in reducing
energy consumption. Washing tests carried out with
typical fabrics show that the energy consumption is
approximately 0.1 kWh/kg at relatively moderate
acoustic intensities,30 which is similar to that of the
top-grade energy efficiency for a rotary drum washer
(0.11 kWh/cycle/kg) according to the national clothes
washer standards in China (GB 12021.4-2013), while
the cleaning performance achieved is more than
double that obtained with conventional machine
washing.
The cleaning mechanism of ultrasonic laundering is
significantly different from that of conventional home
laundering. Machine laundering (or hand laundering)
entails liquid transfer and rubbing to the fiber surface
by aggressive stirring and plunging the fabrics in the
bath, and transfer of the stains from the fiber surface
into the bath with the help of detergents. Ultrasonic
laundering is a more gentle process, in which fabrics
lie almost stationary in the ultrasonic bath. The acous-
tic cavitation produces a micro level of high-speed
liquid movement and vibration at the liquid–fabric
interface through which stains are removed. Fiber and
yarn deform and damage induced by ultrasonic agita-
tion, in theory, may be much less than that of mechan-
ical agitation. In the current study, ultrasonic
laundering has been introduced to improve the fabric
appearance retention of silk while maintaining the
cleaning efficiency and fabric properties.
Materials and methods
Materials
Considering the color of silk samples would change in
the laundering process and then affect the evaluation of
color change of the stained samples washed by the dif-
ferent methods, undyed silk fabric was chosen to mini-
mize the influence from the change of fabric color itself.
Undyed plain-woven silk fabric with a basic weight of
41.1 g/m2 and its commercial colored product (dyed
with Sandolan Brilliant Red N-BG for a 1% owf
depth of dyeing) were supplied by Foshan Shengdi
Textile Co. Ltd, Guangdong, China. Four common
stains used, which comprised the hydrophobic and
hydrophilic components, were red wine (COFCO
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2167
Corporation, Beijing, China), soluble coffee
(Dongguan Nestlé, Kwangtung, China), Fanta orange
(Coca Cola Company and Coca Cola Amatil, Sydney,
Australia) and blend edible oil (COFCO Corporation,
Beijing, China). OP-10 emulsifier was purchased from
Tianjin Red Sun Chemical Co., Ltd, Tanjing, China.
A neutral non-bleach liquid detergent, Blue Moon Silk
& Wool NET care detergent (Guangzhou Blue Moon
Industry Co. Ltd, Kwangtung, China), was used for
cleaning the stained fabrics.
Stained fabrics preparation
The coffee was dissolved in 95 C of water in the ratio of
1:30 (w/v) and then left to cool at ambient temperature,
as a staining solution. Wine and Fanta were used
directly for staining the undyed fabrics; a 3:7 (w/w)
oil/water stain mixture was prepared by high-shear
emulsification with 0.2 wt % OP-10 emulsifier at
60 C. The samples (200 mm  200mm) were immersed
into the baths of the stains for 12 hours at 30 C and
then padded to a liquid pick up of 97% with an even
pressure of 2.0 kg/m2 before being dried at room tem-
perature. The color values of the stained fabric samples
are shown in Table 1. The relatively low standard
deviations indicated that the stained fabrics were
obtained with high uniformities.
Laundering procedures
Machine laundering and ultrasonic laundering of silk
fabrics were performed at their respective reasonable
conditions. For the machine laundering, 15 L of
2.5 g/L detergent–water mixtures and 15 g of stained
silk fabric and 880 g of unstained AATCC Dummy I
Ballast were used, and it was performed in a special silk
mode at 30 C by an Electrolux-ews 850 rotary drum
washer machine. The stained fabric to wash liquor ratio
for the machine laundering and ultrasonic laundering
(both 1000:1) was much higher than those of the prac-
tical domestic laundering; it aimed to minimize the dif-
ference in stain dissolution from the fabric and the
effect of redeposition of the stains of the two laundering
methods. The standardized ballast fabric was added in
the machine laundering liquor to control the washing
Table 1. Color values of the stained fabric samples
L a b K/S
Red wine 76.5  0.3 8.4  0.2 0.7  0.0 0.2  0.0
Instant coffee 79.6  0.3 4.2  0.1 23.9  0.3 0.7  0.0
Fanta 85.5  0.3 15.2  0.9 16.0  0.2 0.2  0.0
Edible oil 78.6  0.5 5.9  0.3 1.6  0.2 0.2  0.0
2168
bath ratio in approximately 15: 1. The bath ratio used is
considered to be optimal, and is recommended for
machine washing of delicate fabrics, such as silk
fabrics.31
For the ultrasonic laundering, a frequency of 28 kHz
and power of 200 W were chosen to optimize the ultra-
sonic laundering conditions in the frequency and power
range of the device (JK-3200DB model, 28–100 kHz,
50–200 W), because low-frequency ultrasonic baths
deliver high-power ultrasonic waves and consequently
high cavitation intensity.32,33 The bath size was
30 cm  15 cm  10 cm (LWH) and the samples
were plainly placed 5–10 cm above the sonotrode,
which was located under the center of the bath. The
stained samples were washed in tandem for 30 min in
the ultrasonic bath at 30 C with 2.5 g/L liquid deter-
gent. The ultrasonic laundering was performed at the
same stained fabric to wash liquor ratio as that of
machine laundering in the absence of the ballast
fabric (a bath ratio of 1000:1); this condition used
was based on the following two considerations: (i)
ultrasonic waves lose their energy and speed when
they pass through the fabric due to the acoustic impe-
dance of the fabric,34–36 so the presence of ballast fabric
and the low bath ratios would result in crowded wash-
ing circumstances and therefore decrease in cleaning
effect and uniformity; (ii) the cleaning effect is caused
by the micro-ultrasonic agitation rather than the rub-
bing between the fabrics. It should be noted that, as a
novel laundering technique that is quite different to the
conventional machine laundering in cleaning mechan-
ism, the ultrasonic laundering preformed at the charac-
teristic conditions is reasonable. The high bath ratio
used for ultrasonic laundering is completely limited
by the fact that no specific ultrasonic devices for domes-
tic laundering are found currently. Also a high bath
ratio used could minimize the ultrasonic energy loss
resulting from the acoustic impedance by the fabric,
making sure the even ultrasonic energy could go to
the fabric. Fortunately, for the laundering at high
bath ratios (above 10:1), the detergency was not depen-
dent on the bath ratio but on mechanical agitation.
It was the highest with ultrasonic agitation, followed
by shaking or stirring and then no mechanical
action,27 so the high bath ratio used did not affect the
evaluation of laundering efficiency.
The pre-washing of stained fabrics was carried out
by soaking them in the same concentration of detergent
aqueous solution at 30 C for 30 min. The ultrasonically
washed and machine-washed samples were both hand
rinsed three times in cool water and dried at ambient
temperature. In the rinsing and drying process, fabrics
were all in the unfolded state to avoid creases. The
laundering of commercial colored fabric samples was
performed with same methods as introduced above.
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Textile Research Journal 84(20)
The warm water soaking of the samples was carried
out at 30 C for 30 min and they were dried at room
temperature.
Color and dimensional size measurement
Prior to all measurements the samples were conditioned
at standard atmosphere conditions (20 C, 65% relative
humidity (RH)) for 5 h. The shade depth (K/S value) of
these samples was evaluated in accordance with
AATCC Evaluation Procedure 6; the CIELab (L*,
a*, b*) values and the total color change (DE) were
measured according to AATCC Evaluation Procedure
7 using a Datacolor SF600X spectrophotometer with a
D65 illuminant and 10 observer. The wavelengths were
520, 425, 475 and 400 nm for the fabrics stained with
red wine, instant coffee, Fanta and edible oil, respec-
tively. The measurements for each sample were pre-
formed five times at different positions, and the data
is reported as mean  standard deviation. The CIE L*
a* b* color values are relative values calculated from
measurement of the three-dimensional color system. L*
represents the brightness of an object and ranges from
100 (white) to 0 (black) along the white–black axis; a*
measures red (+) and green (); and b* measures
yellow (+) and blue (), both with the other and
grey zero. The DE value represents the total color
change calculated with the CIE values changes using
Equation (1). The K/S value indicates the color depth
of a colored object and is assessed using the Kubelka–
Munk equation (Equation (2)):
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
E¼ ðL1  L0 Þ2 þ ða1  a0 Þ2 þ ðb1  b0 Þ2 ð1Þ
ð1  RÞ2
KS ¼ ð2Þ
2R
where 0 and 1 denote color measurements taken before
and after laundering, respectively. R is the fractional
reflectance value of the color substance on the substrate
at kmax and is directly proportional to the
concentration.
The dimensions of each sample were measured.
Untensioned samples were pressed fully flat on a
laboratory bench by a steel rule used for measuring
each side. The percentage dimensional change of the
washed samples along the warp and weft directions
was calculated with the length and width data accord-
ing to Equations (3) and (4), respectively:24
 
ðL1b  L1a Þ ðL2b  L2a Þ
L% ¼ þ =2  100 ð3Þ
L1b L2b
Ma et al.
 
ðW1b  W1a Þ ðW2b  W2a Þ
W% ¼ þ =2  100 ð4Þ
W1b W2b
where DL% and DW% are the percentage warp and
weft dimensional change, respectively. 1 and 2 denote
the two sides of the warp or weft direction of a fabric.
b and a denote dimension measurements taken before
and after laundering, respectively.
Smoothness appearance rating
Smoothness appearances (SAs) of the samples were
rated in comparison with standard replicas according
to AATCC Test Method 143-2006. Six graduate stu-
dents were involved in this experiment, and the average
grade for each sample was calculated from the indivi-
dual rating values. In the above investigations, all the
samples were prepared in quintuplicate.
Evaluating the damage of washed fabrics
The tensile strength of the samples in both the warp and
weft directions was tested under standard atmosphere
conditions using a YG 065 laboratorial tensile tester.
Six samples drawn from each laundered fabric and in
the warp and weft directions were tested to determine
their mean tensile strength and standard deviation. The
three key parameters of the test were a gauge length
and width of 150 mm and 50 mm, respectively, and
strain speed of 100 mm/min.
Figure 1. Change in the color of the stained silk fabrics with repeated machine and ultrasonic laundering.
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2169
The morphology of the samples subjected to ultra-
sonic laundering and machine laundering for 15 wash
cycles was examined using a Hitachi S-4800 field emis-
sion scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) after the
samples were coated with Au.
Results and discussion
The color changes of stained silk fabrics after ultrasonic
laundering, machine laundering and the latter combined
with pre-washing are shown in Figure 1. DE represents
the total color changes (changes in L*, a* and b*) of the
fabrics after laundering; since the changes in a* and b*
values were parallel for each three different washing
methods (as shown in Figure 2), it was reasonable to
evaluate the color lighten extent of stained samples after
laundering using DE values and it is possible to say that
greater DE values of washed fabric indicate that more
stains were removed. As seen from the figure, fabrics
subjected to machine laundering combined with a pre-
washing process had higher DE values than the fabrics
washed by machine directly. It is concluded that pre-
washing of silk fabrics before machine laundering can
effectively improve the stain removal effect. Ultrasonic
laundering showed a significantly better effect in remov-
ing stains from silk fabrics than the two machine laun-
dering methods. The DE values of ultrasonically washed
fabrics increased by 11.6–28.8% depending on the stains
on the fabric compared to the fabrics washed by the pre-
washing + machine washing method, indicating a
2170
Figure 2. Color changes of the colored silk fabrics with
repeated machine and ultrasonic laundering.
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Textile Research Journal 84(20)
corresponding improvement in cleaning ability. The
better stain removal effects in the case of ultrasonic
laundering than the machine laundering can be well
explained by the fact that the ultrasonic cavitation-
based liquor transfer at the liquid/solid interface is
much more intense,37 which accelerates and enhances
the stain transfer from the fabric surface to the launder-
ing bath.
The relatively high swelling and inherently poor wet
resiliency of silk fiber make it easy to deform when wet
and difficult to recover when dried. The most significant
disruptive effects of water on the properties of silk fiber
are longitudinal contraction and loss in mechanical
properties.38 During machine laundering, intense move-
ment and friction in the washing machine, however,
leads to additional and/or extended deformation of
silk fabrics, and also results in much more mechanical
damage and a greater surface smoothness problem. As
shown in Figure 3, there was a drop in the SA level of
silk fabrics after once being washed, regardless of
whether by machine or ultrasonic energy. The mean
SA grade of non-washed fabrics was 5. When one
cycle of laundering was subjected to the fabric, the
SA grade decreased to 2.9 for the machine-washed fab-
rics and 3.6 for the ultrasonically washed fabrics. With
increasing laundering cycles, the SA level of the
machine-washed fabrics decreased significantly to
reach 0.7 after 15 launderings, while the ultrasonically
washed fabrics remained almost constant at a SA level
of about 3.5. Washed fabrics with a SA level above 3.5
are considered to have a durable press appearance, thus
ultrasonic laundering meets the requirements of wash-
ability of silk fabrics.
The surface morphology of silk fabric subjected to
ultrasonic laundering for 15 laundering cycles is shown
in Figure 4(b). There was no insignificant change except
a few floating fibrils observed. Fibrillation, which is one
of the defects of silk fiber, frequently occurs during wet
processing and home laundering due to the high swel-
ling property of the fiber and the inherently weak non-
covalent bonding between silk molecules,1,39 namely,
the high swelling weakens the inter-microfibril interac-
tions that make the fiber more susceptible to fibrillation
under conditions of wet abrasion. As shown in Figures
4(c) and 4(f), fiber fibrillation and mechanical damage
on the surface of the silk fibers can be viewed clearly.
They were definitely caused by abrasion and mechan-
ical impact during the machine laundering process.
These damages can result in a dull fabric appearance
and impair fabric tensile properties. In the present
research, the micro-cracking induced by ultrasonic
energy was not found in silk fiber, in contrast to
those found in the scale structure of ultrasonically
washed wool fibers,29 and only a slightly rough surface
was observed (shown in Figure 4(e)) .
Ma et al. 2171

Figure 3. Change in the smoothness appearance of the silk fabrics with repeated machine and ultrasonic laundering.

Figure 4. Scanning electron microscope images of the silk fabrics: (a), (d) before washing; (b), (e) washed with ultrasonic energy; and
(c), (f) washed with washing machine for 15 cycles.

In addition to providing a good fabric appearance,
ultrasonic laundering also produces fewer adverse
effects on the mechanical properties and dimensional
shrinkage of silk fabrics compared to machine launder-
ing. As shown in Table 2, ultrasonically washed fabrics
had better tensile strength retention (TSR) in both the
warp and weft directions. The TSRs of the fabric in the
warp and weft directions were 91.0% and 93.3% after
one ultrasonic laundering, and they gradually decreased
to 82.4% and 87.5% after 15 launderings, respectively.
However, the extent of decrease was significantly higher
for the corresponding machine-washed fabrics. As
shown in Table 1, for the machine washing, the TSRs
were 90.8% and 92.9% in the warp and weft directions

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2172 Textile Research Journal 84(20)

Table 2. Effects of repeated machine and ultrasonic laundering on fabric tensile strength

Laundering cycles

Strength retention (%) 1 3 6 9 12 15

Warp
Machine washed 90.8  3.9 85.5  3.7 82.4  3.4 79.9  3.2 79.0  3.5 78.6  3.3
Ultrasonically washed 91.0  3.3 87.9  3.1 85.5  3.2 83.6  2.9 82.8  3.0 82.4  2.6
Weft
Machine washed 92.9  3.6 88.0  4.0 86.3  3.1 83.8  3.9 82.5  3.4 81.9  1.2
Ultrasonically washed 93.3  3.4 89.6  3.2 88.4  2.9 88.0  3.7 87.8  3.1 87.5  2.9

Figure 5. Change in the dimensional size of the silk fabrics with repeated machine and ultrasonic laundering.

after one laundering cycle and decreased to 78.6% and
81.9% after 15 laundering cycles, respectively. The
lower tensile strength loss for the ultrasonically
washed fabrics should be due to the lesser fiber
damage during the laundering process, as shown in
Figure 4(b).
The dimensional change of washed samples was
measured, even though the shrinkage to laundering
for woven silk fabrics is not as significant as that of
the cotton fabrics and wool fabrics. It is well known
that fabric shrinkage takes place mainly in the warp
direction,40 as in both the two laundering cases, the
dimensional change of the fabrics in the weft direction
varied from –0.3% to 0.3% with standard deviations
less than 0.2%. Thus, shrinkage of fabrics resulting
from different laundering methods is discussed only
for the warp direction. Figure 5 illustrates the dimen-
sional changes of fabric with two modes of laundering.
Similar to the trend of tensile strength loss during the
launderings, the maximum shrinkage of the samples
occurred in the first cycle and then increased slightly
with the successive launderings. The significant warp-
wise shrinkage in the first few launderings was due to
the strain release and the swelling of silk fabrics during
wetting.40,41 The relatively lesser shrinkage for the fab-
rics washed by ultrasonic energy should be attributed to
the absence of mechanical agitation, because the agita-
tion helps in overcoming the interfiber and interyarn
frictional resistance and, in turn, lets the swollen
fibers and yarns contract more easily. The fewer wrin-
kles or creases of fabrics also resulted in less dimen-
sional shrinkage.

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Ma et al.
Color change of fabrics usually occurs in home laun-
dering due to a cooperative interaction of numerous
physical and chemical influences. Abrasive damage of
the fiber surface and temperature and alkali and bleach
degradation of dyes are considered to be the main
causes. Whether or not the ultrasonic energy would
produce additional or excessive color change to silk
fabrics is very important for its practical applications
in home laundering. Figure 2 illustrates the color
changes of the colored fabrics subjected to repeated
machine and ultrasonic launderings. A slight decrease
in K/S (shade depth) value and increase in L* (bright-
ness) value of the washed samples with increasing
laundering were evident, indicating a trend of turning
light and/or white. There was also a slight trend of
turning green and yellow for the washed samples as a
slight decrease in a* and increase in b* values were
observed. Both the machine and ultrasonic launder-
ings all resulted in color fading, and the fading by
ultrasonic laundering was slightly higher than that
by machine laundering. Such a phenomenon is in
accordance with the better stain removal by ultrasonic
laundering as discussed above. However, the fading
difference is not significant. For example, after 15
laundering cycles, the K/S value by ultrasonic launder-
ing was only 2.7% lower than that by machine laun-
dering. The color changes are probably caused by
hydrolysis and dissolving of the reactive dye on
fiber, such as that shown in Figure 2, a similar but
less striking change in color also observed for the
samples soaked in a warm waterbath in the absence
of detergent. The ultrasonic agitation certainly
improves the hydrolysis and dissolving rate of the
dye on silk fiber to a certain degree, because intensive
mechanical agitation of the wash liquor intensifies the
mass transfer, including the transport of the detergent
chemicals toward the surface of silk fiber and that of
the resultant from the fiber surface to solution, which
results in more effective actions.
Conclusions
This research demonstrated that a good stain removal
effect with satisfactory durable press appearance can
be obtained for silk fabrics by laundering using ultra-
sonic energy instead of conventional washing
machines. Ultrasonic laundering caused less dimen-
sional shrinkage, wrinkled appearance, surface
damage and tensile loss of silk fabrics than those of
machine laundering. Ultrasonic energy did result in a
little more but not significant fading of the colored
fabric compared with machine laundering. It is con-
cluded that the introduction of ultrasonic agitation in
laundering could produce a significant benefit in the
laundering of silk fabrics.
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2173
Funding
This work was supported by the ZSTU-P&G Textile Care
Center, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, China, the Program
for Zhejiang Leading Team of Science and Technology
Innovation (No. 2010R50038) and the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (No. 51373156).
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