Effect of sonication on bioscouring of organic cotton through mixed enzymatic system – Neural network approach

Abstract

An attempt has been made to use the enzyme technology for bioscouring of organic cotton textiles using sonication techniques to improve the enzyme activity and scouring performance. The process optimization of bioscouring of 100% organic cotton fabric with ultrasonic treatment have been done with selective specific mixed enzymatic system using the enzymes such as alkaline pectinase, protease, lipase and cellulase. The process variables such as enzyme concentration, temperature and reaction time are optimized to achieve the required water absorbency and pectin removal during bioscouring process by pectinolytic and proteolytic activity on the organic cotton fabrics. These process variables are selected based on the artificial neural network using MATLAB 7.0 software with and without ultrasonic effect and the output results in fabric physical properties such as fabric weight loss, water absorbency, wetting area, whiteness index, yellowness index, and brightness index. The best optimum bioscouring for organic cotton is achieved in terms of water absorbency (0.856s), whiteness index (54.36%), yellowness index (14.02) and brightness index (69.35%) using <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">8% alkaline pectinase, 3% protease, 0.8% lipase, 0.8% cellulase mixed enzyme, 55<span style="mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;letter-spacing:-.2pt" lang="EN-GB">°<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight:bold" lang="EN-GB">C temperature, 60 min reaction time and 9.5 <i>p</i>H with 1.0% desirability.

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