Soft silk fabrics are extensively used for the production of dress materials and soft sarees. The perennial problem in soft silk fabrics is the wrinkle and drape ability problems. CSTRI has developed new technology for the production of wrinkle resistant and high drape degummed soft silk fabrics using chemical treatment. In the earlier studies the suitability of the chemical has been confirmed for the improvement of softness of fabrics and standardized the processing conditions. In the present study influence of chemical concentration at different temperatures and duration of treatment were studied. It was found that higher the temperature of treatment the chemical reaction was effective and the fabrics have shown improved drapeability and wrinkle resistant. In order to study the chemical modification on the fabrics, the untreated and untreated at different temperatures were studied for Raman spectroscopy. The Raman spectroscopy data has been analyzed and it could be observed that the chemical treatment at 60 ºC and 75 ºC has shown shift at 1225 and 1650 wave number, which may be attributed to tertiary level molecular structure change in amide I and amide III level due to chemical treatment. Thus the study indicate that using the chemical treatment at high temperatures, the degummed soft silk fabrics could be improved to have better crease recovery, drape, Flexural rigidity and tensile characteristics.
Chemical treatment, Degumming, Raman spectroscopy, Silk industry, Soft silk fabrics