Natural silk is one of the most durable, beautiful and useful materials known to man, and it is quite expensive. Unsurprisingly, textile workers are trying to create fabrics that are similar in properties to silk, but cheaper.
What is natural silk
Natural silk thread is a protein consisting of 97% amino acids, 3% wax and fatty acids. It is obtained by unwinding silkworm cocoons using a special technology. It takes about 3000 cocoons to create a square meter of fabric. The thread can be up to 1200 m long.
Silk thread is extremely tensile strength. The tissue from it is hypoallergenic, hygroscopic, ideally regulates the heat exchange between the body and the environment. In winter, silk clothing is warm, in summer it is not hot. Due to its structure, the silk fabric shimmers beautifully, reflecting light like a prism.
The silk obtained from the cocoon of the wild silkworm is called scabby.
What is rayon
Artificial silk is cotton fibers treated with sodium hydroxide iodine solution. This treatment is called mercerization. To give a special shine, the mercerized fibers are passed through special rollers. The rayon fabric is durable, pleasant to the touch and looks like natural silk, but its composition is cellulose.
Another type of fabric called rayon is viscose. For its manufacture, cotton fibers or chopped wood are treated with a concentrated solution of sodium hydroxide. The resulting thick yellowish mass is passed through holes of very small diameter, as a result of which a long fiber is formed - the basis of the viscose fabric. Viscose fabric looks like silk, is pleasant to the touch, wear-resistant, but less durable at high temperatures.
You can wash viscose products at a temperature not exceeding 30 ° C, preferably by hand or in a washing machine in a gentle wash mode.
By treating crushed wood with acetic acid derivatives, acetate fibers are obtained. They are much more elastic than viscose ones, and therefore products made of acetate fabrics wrinkle less, however, when washing in hot water, they form folds that are difficult to remove. In addition, acetate fabrics are highly electrified.
What is synthetic silk
Synthetic silk thread is obtained by processing high-molecular compounds based on coal, oil, natural gas. Thus, polyester and polyamide are obtained. Using special technologies, you can get extremely durable materials, water and grease-repellent fabrics. Of course, they don't look too much like natural silk.
How to distinguish natural silk
Products made from natural silk cannot be cheap. When natural silk thread is set on fire, it will give off the smell of burnt hair. The ember remaining after combustion is easily crushed into dust. A thread of rayon when burning gives off a smell of paper, synthetic - burnt plastic. In addition, the edges of the synthetic silk fabric melt under the influence of fire.
Natural silk wrinkles less than artificial silk. You can strongly wrinkle the fabric for a while, then inspect it: if the product is natural, almost no folds will remain.
