Effect of water at elevated temperatures on the wool fibre surface

Aqueous treatments are found in many stages of wool processing. Water and h eat are known to alter the chemical nature of the whole fibre. There is an incomplete understanding of the full effects of aqueous treatments on the f ibre surface. This study investigates changes to the fibre surface as a result of exposur e to water at elevated temperatures in terms of the current fibre surface m odel and highlights the significance of such changes in further processing, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), held emission scanning electron mi croscopy (FESEM) and gas chromatography (GC) have been used to study the ch emical and morphological changes to the fibre, The results show that the fibre surface is modified by treatment with water at elevated temperatures (50-100 degrees C) with the loss of surface-bound lipid and changes to the morphological structure of the fibre, Even at tem peratures as low as 50 degrees C, some of the surface-bound lipid is remove d. At higher treatment temperatures, more of the bound lipid is removed. Th is finding has important practical implications for the wool, processing in dustry, Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.