TANNERY SCALE APPLICATION OF AN ISOTHIAZOLINE MICROEMULSION FUNGICIDE

An investigation has been carried out on the uptake, penetration into wet blue and the dispersion in the tannery vessel of the fungicide Kat hon XB2-ERB. The also followed the fate of the chemical through subseq uent processing of the wet blue to the dyed crust stage. Kathon XB2-ER B is a microemulsion of the active ingredient 2-n-octyl-4-isothiazolin -3-one. It was found that the fungicide was rapidly taken up by the we t blue, but did not penetrate uniformly into the cross-section. A larg er inter hide variation of fungicide concentrations was found, while i ntra hide variation was small. About 30% of the active ingredient was washed from the treated leather during subsequent processing.