Dyeing Properties of Silk Super Fine Powder Available to Purchase

In this paper, silk powder around 1.5 micrometer average in size was developed and its dyeing property was compared with normal silk fiber. The results show that silk powder has a very high dye uptake property and can be dyed at room temperature; it can also be used to improve the dyeing property of some materials when it acts as a kind of additive agent. The K/S value of silk fiber is higher than that of silk powder. Their K/S value of silk fiber and silk superfine powder are influenced largely by the dye concentration. The WXRD diffraction curves showed that the crystallinity of silk powder is lower than that of silk fiber. FTIR spectra of silk powder showed that the intensity peak of CH₂-antisymmetrical stretching vibration largely decreased, and the peak of C=O symmetrical stretching vibration of amid bond moved to the high wave-number. TG patterns of samples showed that water (moisture) could be easily removed from the powder when the temperature was over 70°C, and the initial decomposition temperature of silk powder increased from 262.5°C to 277.5°C. Moreover, the silk powder showed higher residue than that of silk fiber at 600°C.