• Textile Coloration and Finishing
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• v.18 no.6 s.91
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• pp.25-30
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• 2006

Degumming is an essential process to improve the luster and smoothness of the silk filament. Silk varieties were degummed using different methods. A number of methods, from pad-steam to specific alkaline are being used for this propose. In this paper an attempt to compare the efficiencies of different degumming processes has been made. from the results, it may be observed that when silk fabrics were pad-steam, the degree of degumming, as assessed by weight loss. When the pad-steam degumming was carried out at different pHs, adjusted using alkalies, it was observed that at higher pH the weight loss is high. Pad-steam degumming as well as star degumming was found to be superior with minimum damage to the substrate. Among the alkalis used, the sodium carbonate gives the best results, since the weight loss is almost maximum with lower strength loss by over degumming. It is also efficient from the point of view of conservation of heat energy and time as against the comparable star degumming.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.53-57
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• 1994

The weight loss for the mixture (spun silk/PET) was tested to investigate the effects of weight loss accelerator on the degumming and weight loss. The degumming loss of spun silk was decreased while the wigth loss of polyester(PET) was increased depending on the increased of weight loss accelerator concentration. The proper degumming of spun silk was obtained and simultaneously the weight loss of PET was high for the spun silk/PET "A" and "B" type. The proper degumming of spun silk was obtained but the weight of PET was loss for the spun silk/PET "D" and "E" type. The degumming curve in spun silk part was showed the typical degumming curve but the weight loss of PET was increased depending on the increased of treatment time in the weight loss for the fabric composed of spun silk/PET.or the fabric composed of spun silk/PET.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.114-119
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• 1993

The weight loss for the mixture(raw-silk/PET) was tested to investigate the effects of weight loss accelerator on the degumming and weight loss. The degumming loss of raw-silk was decreased while the weight loss polyester(PET) was increased depending on the increase of accelerator concentration. The difference of the weight loss was not significant in raw-silk but the weight loss of PET was increased with the increase of the alkali concentration. The proper degumming of raw-silk was obtained and simultaneously the weight loss of PET was high for the raw-silk/PET "A" and "B" type. The proper degumming of raw-silk was obtained but the weight loss of PET was low for the raw-silk/PET "D" and "E" type. It showed that the typical degumming curve in raw-silk part and the weight loss of PET was increased depending on the treatment time in the weight loss for the fabric composed of raw-silk and PET.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.205-208
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• 2012

Antheraea pernyi silkworm is a well known wild silkworm to produce a valuable silk fiber. A. pernyi silkworm was reared in Korean oak field and examined the cocoon characteristics, such as cocoon weight, cocoon shell weight, and percentage of cocoon shell weight. Degumming loss was also measured after alkali degumming process. A. pernyi silkworm spins tawny color cocoon in oval shape. Cocoon shell weight of A. pernyi silkworm, 0.78 g, was heavier than that of B. mori silkworm, 0.51 to 0.63 g. Cocoon shell percentage of A. pernyi silkworm, 32.8%, was higher than that of B. mori silkworm, 23.4 to 25.2%. Degumming loss percentage of A. pernyi silkworm, 17.1%, was lower than that of B. mori silkworm, 25.0%. SEM showed that the surface of the cocoon filament was coarse and oriented with longitudinal direction.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.44-52
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• 1994

Degumming with enzyme Degummase can be a viable alternative to the existing methods of degumming. Degumming, carried out with the conventional method of Marseille's soap 25%(owf) for 1.5h at boil gives a weight loss of about 24%. On Comparison, degumming with 10 enzyme at 5$0^{\circ}C$ for 60 min gives a weight loss of about 22%. Treatment with enzyme requires a much lower temperature and also the treatment time is shorter than the conventional process. Processing of silk at these conditions is likely to retain the lustre and softness of silk. To economise on the quantity of enzyme, conditions were optimised for a pad-store process. An enzyme concentration of 0.5% at 5$0^{\circ}C$ for a time period of 5~6h resulted in a weight loss of 22%. Though the concentration of the enzyme used was 20 times less than that used for long liquor method there was some strength loss. At 5$0^{\circ}C$ treatments carried out for 7~8 h resulted in some degradation. Strength loss occurs because enzyme in the absence of any stirring keeps acting at the place where it is deposited. Effect of temperature was more pronounced than time in degrading silk.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.56-69
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• 2022

Silk is a unique natural biopolymer with outstanding biocompatibility, high mechanical strength, and superior optical transparency. Due to its excellent properties, silk has been widely reported as an ideal biomaterial for several biomedical applications. Recently, fluorescent silk protein, a variant of native silk, has been reported as a biophotonic material with the potential for bioimaging and biosensing. Despite the realization of fluorescent silk, the traditional degumming process of fluorescence silk is crude and often results in fluorescence loss. The loss of fluorescent properties is attributed to the sensitivity of silk fibroin to temperature and solvent concentration during degumming. However, there is no comprehensive information on the influence of these processing parameters on fluorescence evolution and decay during fluorescent silk processing. Therefore, we conducted a spectroscopic study on fluorescence decay as a function of temperature, concentration, and duration for fluorescent silk cocoon degumming. Sodium carbonate solution was tested for degumming the fluorescent silk cocoons with different concentrations and temperatures; also, sodium carbonate solution is combined with Alcalase enzyme and triton x-100 to find optimal degumming conditions. Additionally, we conducted a molecular dynamics study to investigate the fundamental effect of temperature on the stability of the fluorescent protein. We observed degumming temperature as the prime source of fluorescent intensity reduction. From the MD study, fluorescence degradation originated from the thermal agitation of fluorescent protein Cα atoms and fluctuations of amino acid residues located in the chromophore region. Overall, degumming fluorescent silk with sodium carbonate and Alcalase enzyme solution at 25 ℃ preserved fluorescence.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2012

A newly developed silkworm variety, GoldenSilk makes bright yellow cocoon. In this article, the basic characteristics of GoldenSilk cocoon were examined through color analysis, degumming characteristics and UV spectrophotometer. The colorant of GoldenSilk cocoon was not distributed evenly throughout the cocoon layer but existed in the outer layer of the cocoon. The colorant has not good resistance against sunlight. The degumming loss percentage of GoldenSilk cocoon was 29.2%, which is relatively higher than that of the authorized one. UV spectrophotometer showed specific absorption band around 400 to 500 nm, which is the specific yellow colorant of the GoldenSilk cocoon extracted to the degumming solution during the degumming process.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.517-523
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• 2003

We studied the physical properties of silk fabrics after degumming, the dyeability and the color fastness of silk fabrics after degumming and sericin fixing. As the sericin was removed from silk fabrics, the rate of weight loss increased and both the abrasion resistance and the drape coefficient decreased. This means that the amount of the sericin remained in silk fabrics significantly affects the physical properties of silk fabrics. On the surface and the cross-section of silk fabrics, the silk fibers enclosed by the sericin seemed to be in a lump shape. Each fibroin strand, however, got scattered, as the process of degumming went through. The dyeability of silk fabrics degummed decreased at between 20$^{\circ}C$∼80$^{\circ}C$ the dyeing temperature, on the other hand, it significantly increased over 80$^{\circ}C$. The dyeability of the sericin-fixed silk fabrics was lower than that of the non-serin-fixed silk fabrics, to a little extent. The colorfastness of crocking in the dyed-silk fabrics was a little low and that of the sweat was much lower in a basic sweat. Especially, the colorfastness of the partially degummed silk fabrics was low, because the sericin was not stable in the condition of sweat. Therefore, the process of sericin fixing is essentially required, for the partially degummed silk fabrics and the process of degumming itself.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.127-131
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• 2015

Oak silkworm, Antheraea yamamai (A. yamamai), has been used for clothing and surgical suture and considered as biomaterial due to RGD tripeptide. This paper reported the degumming conditions of A. yamamai using sodium oleate, high pressure and temperature, and sodium carbonate. Degumming ratio of A. yamamai cocoon using sodium oleate was less than 10%. High pressure and temperature treatment induced 30% weight loss of A. yamamai cocoon. The concentration, treatment temperature and time using sodium carbonate was examined and revealed the following conditions for degumming; 5% owf, 60 min at 100℃. The degummed solution was confirmed using UV and FT-IR spectrometer. Our results can be used to handle A. yamamai silkworm cocoon for further application including material processing.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.60-68
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• 1993

It has been known that the silk degumming treated by hot alkali solution is easy to handle but is liable to yield poor-quality silk due to the degree of degumming loss, incomplete-degumming or over-degumming. Therefore, many studies have been carried out on the silk degumming by enzyme in order to improve the quality of silk. However, no attention has been paid to the physicochemical analysis of enzymatic degummed silk. In this paper, two different degumming methods, soap and enzymatic, are compared in aqueous solution state of silk fibroin. The results can be summarized as follows: There was no significant difference between two solutions on the bases of polarizing microscopy, TEM observation and SDS-PAGE. Spherulite of silk fibroin was not observed in polarizing microscopy, however the leaf-shape fibril structure was developed upon solidification. The size of spherulites of silk fibroin in TEM observation were 30~120nm with a wide range of size distribution. The intrinsic viscosity of enzymatic degummed fibroin solution was lower than that of soap degummed solution. This can be explained that the silk fibroin was more degraded by enzymatic degumming method compared with the soap degumming method. SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis showed that the fibroin molecule was composed of large component of molecule weight above 50 kd and small component of molecule weight about 20 kd. There was no difference in crystallinity between two degumming methods on the bases of results of DSC thermograms and IR spectra.