The Influence of a Cationic Surfactant on the Shrink‐resist Treatment of Wool with Sodium Sulphite in Aqueous Solution

Abstract

The nature of a combined cationic surfactant/sodium sulphite reductive treatment which prevents felting shrinkage in knitted wool fabrics has been investigated. Very good shrink resistance has been observed for those samples treated simultaneously with reducing agent and the cationic surfactant. A reasonable correlation was found between surfactant sorption and area shrinkage. Other parameters which affect surfactant sorption include bath pH, temperature, treatment time and the amount of cysteine produced during treatment.