Water Vapor Sorption by Resin-Treated Annealed Wool

Abstract

The nature of the changes in the sorption capacity of wool that has been annealed and resin-treated has been de scribed. Except under conditions. known to lead to degradation, the major effect is a reduction in water content over the entire range of humidity. The changes are in the same direction and generally greater than those obtained by simply annealing the wool under similar conditions in the absence of the resin-forming reagents. The presence of resorcinol-formaldehyde resin, or treatment with either resorcinol or formaldehyde individually, does not account for- the observed changes, and there appears to be a synergistic effect on changes of water content by deposition of resin under annealing conditions.