Premium
The Reaction between Wool and Nickelammonium Hydroxide II‐The Supercontraction of Wool Fibres in Solutions of Nickelammonium Hydroxide
Author(s) -
Bell J. W.,
Whewell C. S.
Publication year - 1953
Publication title -
journal of the society of dyers and colourists
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.297
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1478-4408
pISSN - 0037-9859
DOI - 10.1111/j.1478-4408.1953.tb02791.x
Subject(s) - wool , lanthionine , nickel , hydroxide , chemistry , adsorption , polymer chemistry , chemical engineering , inorganic chemistry , materials science , organic chemistry , composite material , amino acid , biochemistry , engineering
When wool is immersed in solutions of nickelammonium hydroxide, nickel is adsorbed and the fibres contract in length. It is shown that the adsorption of only about 7% of nickel can induce a contraction of 40%; on removing the nickel by immersing the fibre in dilute acid it partly regains its original length. This reversal is, however, not solely dependent on removal of nickel, for if this is removed by buffer solutions of low acidity no recovery in length takes place. With the exception of acetylation, chemical modification of the wool has little or no effect on the ultimate supercontraction, but profoundly alters the recovery characteristics when the nickel is removed by acid. In general, chemically modified fibres do not recover their original length, the exception being those in which the disulphide bond is replaced by the lanthionine linkage. The improved reversibility of these fibres suggests that the disulphide cross‐links play an important part in the recovery of fibres whose molecular structure has been distorted through combination with nickel.