Protease Enzyme Used for Artificial Ageing on Modern Cotton Fabric for Historic Textile Preservation and Restoration

• Main Author: Harby E. AHMED
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi 2013-06-01
• Series: International Journal of Conservation Science
• Subjects: Protease; removal; enzymes; cotton; natural dyes; SEM; FTIR
• Online Access: http://ijcs.uaic.ro/public/IJCS-13-18-Ahmed.pdf

Some of Historical textiles objects in Egyptian museums are containing different types of adhesives from previous restoration processes. Furthermore, they may contain some protein stains such as blood stains, which could involve more damage for the historical textiles. In the context of removing the adhesives by various methods, one may cause damage in the textiles, therefore the biotechnological application of enzymes seems to be a very promising approach in the restoration of historical objects. Our results show that enzyme removing is the most effective method, among all tested methods, in the removing of resistant old adhesives and stains. The tested enzymes for the removing technique solved the problems caused by other traditional removing techniques of resistant old adhesives from museum textiles. The main fibers of the tested objects were cotton fibers dyed with some natural dyes. Thus, the fibers that were used in this study were cotton, dyed with Turmeric dye, madder dye mordanted with alum, CuSO4 or Ferric Citrate, as well as without mordant. Additionally,we studied the effect of the enzyme on the mechanical parameters of fibers (Tensile strength, Elongation, Crystallinity index), by FTIR, XRD and ASTM. Furthermore, the effect of enzymes on the morphology of the surface of the untreated and enzymatically treated dyed fabric was investigated by using SEM and Stereoscopy. The effect of enzymes as a function of enzyme concentration and time of treatment on the fabrics color parameters was extensively studied. There was no impact-destructive effect on cotton fibers after the enzyme treatment. Thus, we could conclude that the enzyme have a very slight effect on cotton fibers dyed with natural dyes.