Ultrasound-assisted chemical dissolution for quantitative analysis of wool in textile blends

The objective is to explore the feasibility of ultrasound technology for quantitative analysis of wool in blended fabrics with chemical dissolution. Two varieties of mixture fabric with wool content of 45.1 and 16.7% were employed and were dissolved in solution of sodium hypochlorite with ultrasound assistance at different frequencies of 20, 28 and 40 kHz. By statistical method, the data for both blends indicated that there were no significant difference among the three ultrasound frequencies when applied to textile quantitative chemical analysis. For evaluation of ultrasound reliability, two insoluble materials were dissolved in sodium hypochlorite. Relative errors showed that ultrasound has little impact on the quality of insoluble fibers as well as mechanical stirring. Compared with mechanical agitation, wool was dissolved completely in a short time and at low liquor ratio when assisted with ultrasound. The results suggested that it was feasible to quantitatively analyze the wool in blended fabrics with chemical dissolution by ultrasound technology.