Cellulase Activities and Finishing Effects on Cotton Fabrics

The relationships between cellulase activities and theproperties of treated labrics including weight loss,breaking strength,surface thickness and bending rigiditywere investigated.Three cellulases were used to treattwo kinds of cotton fabrics and the results were com-pared to their activities measured towards filter paper,CMC and dewaxed cotton.The results suggested thatamong the three activities,exo activity(measured to-wards dewaxed cotton)be mostly inclined to reflect theactual hydrolytic capability of the cellulase on cotton fab-rics,while endo activity(measured towards CMC)wasof little use in predicting cellulase efflciency in terms ofweight loss.The investigation also suggested that the rel-atively endo-rich cellulase(Cellusoft Plus)was inclinedto give biopolishing effects by cleaning the surface fibrilof fabrics while the exo-rich cellulase(Cellusoft L,alsoknown as total or full cellulase)tended to deliver soften-ing cffects by decreasing the bending and shearing prop-erties.

Cellulase Activities and Finishing Effects on Cotton Fabrics

The relationships between ccllulasc activities and the properties of treated fabrics including weight loss, breaking strength, surface thickness and bending rigidity were investigated. Three ccllulascs were used to treat two kinds of cotton fabrics and the results were compared to their activities measured towards filtcr paper, CMC and dcwaxed cotton. The results suggested that among the three activities, cxo activity (measured towards dcwaxed cotton) be mostly Inclined to reflect the actual hydrolytic capability of the ccllulasc on cotton fabrics, while endo activity (measured towards CMC) was of little use in predicting cellulase efficiency in terms of weight loss. The investigation also suggested that the relatively endo - rich cellulase (Ccllusoft Plus) was inclined to give biopolishing effects by cleaning the surface fibril of fabrics while the exo - rich cellulase (Ccllusoft L, also known as total or full ccllulasc) tended to deliver softening effects by decreasing the bending and shearing properties.