Development of Evaluation Method for Surface Damage of Wool Fibers

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The effect of the damage type and the damage level on the canges in surface characteristics of keratin fibers was studied. Then, we investigated the relationships between the change in surface characteristics and that in water transport behavior along damaged keratin fibers. For this purpose, human hair fibers were damaged by two means : chlorination of the hair with DCCA reagent, and physical treatment, namely, rubbing the fibers with sandpaper. We prepared several samples differing in the level of damage by each method. Surface morphology of damaged fibers were examined by light and scanning electron microscopy (LM and SEM), and chemical structures of the surfaces were evaluated by amino acid analysis. We confirmed that the surface characterization results reflect the type and level of damoges. Contact angle (rheta) values were evaluated for damaged fibers by measuring the wetting force of a single fiber sample using the Wilhelmy-type apparatus. The averaged values of rheta for damaged fibers decreased upon the degree of damage. We investigated the water transport behavior along variously damaged human hair fibers using the electrical capacitance technique which has been reported by us (2). The results show that the rate of water trasport along fiber bundle was strongly influenced by the type and level of damage to keratin fibers.