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Eco-friendly way to remove toxic chemicals in Indian silk processing

15 Jul '24
2 min read
Eco-friendly way to remove toxic chemicals in Indian silk processing
Pic: Adobe Stock

Insights

  • Researchers at the Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology in Guwahati have identified four ionic liquids that can be promising sustainable alternatives to toxic chemicals used in silk protein extraction.
  • The finding, published in 'Chemistry Select', has potential for use in sericin extraction from both mulberry and non-mulberry silk.
Researchers at the Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST) in Guwahati have discovered an eco-friendly approach to eliminate use of toxic chemicals in silk processing. 
 
Traditionally, toxic chemicals like sodium carbonate, sodium hydroxide, sulfuric acid and lithium bromide have been used to extract silk proteins fibroin and sericin from various types of raw silk fibres, a key step in the process of making silk from cocoons.
 
The IASST team identified ionic liquids (ILs) that can be promising sustainable alternatives to toxic chemicals used now in silk protein extraction, a release from the ministry of science and technology, under which IASST functions, said.
 
The team led by Kamatchi Sankaranarayan has identified four ILs that can be effective in extracting silk proteins from raw fibres.
 
The finding, published in the Wiley journal ‘Chemistry Select’, has potential for use in sericin extraction from both mulberry (Bombyx mori) and non-mulberry silk like muga (Antheraea assamensis) and eri (Philosamia ricini), indigenous to Northeast India.
 
The researchers explored six different ILs and found some of them were particularly effective in removing sericin without damaging the silk protein structure. 
 
The ones showing greatest promise included 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate and tetraethylammonium bromide. The last one appeared to be highly effective due to its ability to destabilise sericin proteins.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)

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