Wet Processing of Silk

•Degumming is the heart of wet processing of raw silk.

•The main purpose of the degumming process is to remove the Sericin
from the fibre, to remove some impurities (e.g. waxes, fats, mineral salts)
affecting both the dyeing and printing processes, to make the fibre highly
absorbent for dyes and chemicals and to reveal the lustre of fibroin and
to improve the appearance of the fibre.
•The fact that the raw silk contains two components fibroin and Sericin,
which covers the filaments.
• Sericin contains some impurities, for example, waxes, fats, mineral salts
and pigments.
•Sericin has the same amino acid residues, as fibroin but the proportions
contained in both components are quite different.
• As a result of this, the degumming process must be carefully carried out
on silk in the appropriate conditions otherwise the fibroin may be
damaged.
•The Sericin is removed from the fibre but the fibroin must not be
damaged
 Composition of raw silk
• Fibroin : 70-80%
• Sericin : :20-30%
• Carbohydrates : :0.7%
• Wax materials :0.4-0.8%
• Inorganic matter : 0.6%
• Natural pigments: 0.2%

There are 5 ways of Degumming silk :

1) Degumming with water under pressure at 115-120C
2) Degumming with soap (at 98C)
3) Alkali Degumming
4) Acid Degumming
5) Enzymatic degumming
 Degumming with water under pressure at 120C
• Water at room temperature does not dissolve silk but silk is
highly susceptible to dissolution in boiling water.
• For complete removal of Sericin, in case of cultivated
varieties of silk, it is necessary to extract the silk yarn with
water at 120C for 4 hours.
• For this reason, this process gives a risk of fibroin being
damaged when the time of treatment is prolonged.
• This process needs large autoclaves to treat the fibre in silk
industry.
• A further disadvantage is that this process gives incomplete
degumming and sometimes soap or synthetic detergent must
be added to improve the degumming effect.
• Therefore this process is very difficult to control and now it is
not used in silk industry in order to remove Sericin from silk.
 Degumming with soap (at 98C)
• Different soaps like olive oil, palm oil can be used for degumming.
• Marseilles soap, an olive oil soap, is an outstanding soap for degumming because of its
high degree of hydrolysis which gives better lustre.
• For example, this process may be carried out using 10 – 20 g/l soap at 92 – 98 C for 2-
4 hours adjusted pH to 10.2 – 10.5 in order to react effectively upon the sericin.
• The degumming action of the soap is due to alkali formed, which forms a chemical
bond with Sericin and produce soda salt, on the hydrolysis of the soap.
• The Sericin, in the form of soda salt, is separated by soap and dissolved in water due
to the emulsification action of soap.
• The quantity and type of soap required for degumming generally depends upon the
nature and type of silk.
• Disadvantage of soap degumming are
• The process requires soft water.
• The metallic ions such as Ca and Mg combine with soap and produce insoluble
metallic soap, which deposits on fibre and reduces the lustre of fabric. Combination of
soap and alkali accelerate the process.
• As a result of the high temperature, this process tends to attack both sericin and
fibroin because of the sensitive nature of fibroin itself and chemical similarity of
fibroin and sericin.
 Alkali Degumming
• Alkalis hydrolyse protein by attacking the peptide bonds and are said to have severe
damaging effect on proteins.
• Hence, this process has to be carried out under controlled condition, so as not to result
in over degumming.
• For this process, pH should be maintained between 9.5-10.5. Below pH 9.5, rate of
degumming is too slow causing prolonged exposure and hence mechanical damage.
Above pH 10.5 there is a danger of fibroin being attacked.
• Alkalis used for degumming are caustic (NaOH), soda ash (Na 2CO3), sodium bicarbonate
(NaHCO3), K2CO3, Na2SiO3, since it leaves the silk rather harsh in handle and it is
recommended to use buffer system. Hence caustic soda and sodium bicarbonate is the
widely used buffer.

The optimum concentrations are:

Na 2CO3 – 1.06%
NaHCO3 – 0.84%
Non-ionic surfactant – 0.3%

• Degumming can be carried out at 100C for 2 hours with MLR 1:40.
 Acid degumming
• It is comparatively safe method, as the action of
organic acids was reported to be much less
pronounced on silk than that of mineral acids.
• Different acids used for degumming are Lactic
acid, Tartaric acid, Oxalic acid, Citric acid.
• Degumming is carried out with 0.05-1 gpl acid
and 3g/l non-ionic surfactant at 100C for 60
min.
• Considering the weight loss and tenacity the best
result are obtained with succinic acid and
monochloro acetic acid.
 Enzymatic degumming
• Enzymes are proteins, catalysing a specific
chemical reaction, which are known as ‘bio-
catalysts’.
• They work at atmospheric pressure and in mild
conditions (e.g. at 40C, pH 8.0).
• Trypsin, papain and bacterial enzymes are the
main types of enzymes for silk degumming.
• These enzymes are called ‘proteases’ because
they degrade and their degradation products are
polypeptides, peptides and other substances by
hydrolysis of the –CO-NH- linkage.
 Typical Recipe for Silk Degumming

Wetting agent……………………=0.5-1.0 g/l 

Sequestering agent…………….=1.0-2.0 g/l 
Antifoaming agent……………...=0.5-1.0 g/l 
Natural soap…………………….=15.0-30.0 g/l 
TSP/Soda ash…………………..=1.0-3.0 g/l 
Detergent………………………..=1.0-3.0 g/l (not mandatory if use soda) 
Temperature…………………….=90-95°C 
Time………………………………=90-120 min 
pH…………………………………=9.5-10.5 
M:L………………………………..=1:10 
 Advantage of Enzymatic degumming over the conventional
degumming with alkaline soap
• It has a specific reaction thereby it may give a minimum damage to fibroin.
• It has a lesser risk of over degumming than alkaline soap degumming,
• Weight loss can be easily modified by adjusting the concentration of enzyme, the
reaction time and the use of optimum pH and temperature.
• With the enzyme method, silk is treated at low temperature (e.g. at 40C) not
only reducing energy costs but also preventing fibre weakness.
• Enzyme treatment is an environmentally friendly process because enzymes are
readily biodegrade in nature.
• There is no soap required in enzyme degumming process. Therefore, uneven
dyeing problem caused by metallic soap can be avoided.

Enzymatic degumming also has some economic disadvantages as:

• It needs some pre-treatment processes, since the gum must be swollen before
the enzyme bath.
• It is very slow reaction compared to alkaline soap degumming.
• Degumming of the silk is carried out in form of hanks as well as fabric.
 Wet Processing of Wool
Steps in Pretreatments for Wool:
• Raw wool scouring; aqueous and/ or solvent
washing
• Carbonizing
• desizing
• Fulling /crabbing/thermo fixing
• Easy-care treatments
• Anti-felting anti-shrinking treatments
• Wool Bleaching
 Felting and milling

• Felting is the tendency of the fibres to form

matted entanglements such that a woven fabric,
for example, can become so matted that the warp
and weft yarns are no longer visible.
• The result is a fabric which is apparently
composed entirely of a entangled web of fibres
and the fabric is referred to a felt.
• Milling is the process of deliberately felting wool
goods to achieve the effects of felting.