Surface modification of cashmere fibers by reverse proteolysis

The aim of this research was to attach hydrophobic amino acids to the surfa ce of cashmere in an attempt to improve the water repellency without affect ing its inherent properties. Two separate enzyme modification processes are described for peptide bond formation. To detect improvements in water repe llency, new methods were developed for measuring hydrophobicity on fiber su rfaces, concentrating particularly on the reproducibility of such measureme nt. The amino acid grafting demonstration provided the groundwork for fiber improvements by the attachment of other amino acids.