Abstract
Silk has been used extensively in textile applications because of its good luster and feel. However, the low elongation and elastic recovery of silk has limited its use in a wider variety of textile applications. In this study, silk textile samples were made with a highly twisted silk/polyurethane core-spun yarn. They were immersed in water and dried at different temperatures, and the effect of treatment temperature on the mechanical properties of the silk textile was examined. It was found that the water temperature strongly affected the morphology and mechanical properties of the silk textile, whereas the drying temperature did not. As the water temperature was increased, the weft silk yarn became tangled and the interval between warp yarns decreased, resulting in shrinkage of the silk textile. When the silk textile was immersed in water at high temperature (i.e., $100^{\circ}C$), the elongation of the textile increased eight-fold as compared to an untreated silk textile. The maximum elastic recovery ratio of the silk textile was 96.7%.
