Structure and Properties of Porous Bulked Tussah Silk and its Product

Abstract

Tussah silk is a special product of China, which has luxury, ecological and health care advantages. Tussah silk is particularly suitable for the production of silk quilt, silk blanket, warm clothing and other products. In this work, porous bulked tussah silk fibers could be obtained through high temperature, high pressure, steaming explosion and puffing physical processing high-tech without any chemicals and assistants during degumming process. The surface morphology, size, porosity and mechanical property of the porous bulked tussah silk fibers were studied and compared with the ordinary tussah silk fibers. SEM results indicated that the bulked tussah silk fibers had porous structure. And the porous bulked tussah silk had higher elasticity and softness than the ordinary tussah silk fibers. Porous bulked and high elasticity tussah silk quit was produced from the ecotype porous bulked tussah silk fibers. The wearability of porous bulked tussah silk quilt was also investigated. The results showed that the insulating property, elastic recovery percentage and bulkiness of the porous bulked tussah silk quilt were all better than those of the ordinary silk quilt. As a result of the high resilience and flexibility of porous bulked tussah silk, the tussah quilt can effectively prevent the tangles and clumping of the silk fibers and is durable.