Application of Power Ultrasound to Chemical Dissolution for Quantitative Analysis of Cotton and Polyester Blended Fabrics

In this paper, the feasibility of applying ultrasonic technology to quantitative analysis of cotton and polyester blended fabrics by the chemical dissolution method is explored. Four varieties of blends with different cotton contents were employed and dissolved in sulfuric acid solution with ultrasound assistance. Although three different frequencies: 20, 28 and 40 kHz were adopted, the experimental results indicate that there is no difference between them. For some fabrics that cannot be untwisted into yarns, ultrasonic technology has good experimental results while only needing a fabric form prepared from a small, long strip. By comparison with the traditional mechanical oscillation method stated in ISO 1833-11:2006, the more meaningful role of ultrasonic lies in the fact that the experimental time and usage of solvent can be reduced by half, which is in agreement with resource savings and environmental protection. Broadly speaking, the study demonstrated that ultrasound assisted chemical dissolution for the quantitative analysis of cotton and polyester blended fabric is feasible.