Abstract
OWING to the breakdown of salt and sulphur linkages, and consequent rearrangement of the peptide chains, untreated wool fibres contract 30 per cent in length in boiling sodium bisulphite solution, whereas fibres containing stable linkages between the peptide chains fail to contract under similar conditions1. This fact has been used to show that baryta-treated fibres contain SBaS bonds2, and set fibres contain SNH bonds3 between the peptide chains. In addition, since caustic soda-treated fibres fail to contract in sodium bisulphite solution, it was suggested that bonds are formed by the action of caustic soda on the cystine linkage, thus explaining why skins are more difficult to unhair after treatment with alkali4. In support of this view, it was pointed out that Harris had failed to reduce the sulphur content of wool fibres to less than half its original value by caustic soda treatment5, and that Küster and Irion had isolated a derivative from the products of the action of sodium sulphide on wool6. More recently, Harris7, taking advantage of the work of Zincke and Farr8, and of Schöberl9, has shown that aldehyde groups are produced by loss of hydrogen sulphide from the sulphenic acid derived from the disulphide bond by alkaline hydrolysis, and Phillips10 has suggested that the aldehydes may condense with the basic side chains of wool to produce N = CH bonds between the peptide chains.
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References
Speakman, NATURE, 132, 930 (1933).
Speakman, Applied Chemistry Reports, 20, 164 (1935).
Speakman, J. Soc. Dyers and Colourists, Jubilee Number, 1934, p. 34.
Whewell, Ph.D. Thesis, University of Leeds, 1935.
Harris, Bur. Stand. J. Research, 15, 63 (1935).
Küster und Irion, Z. physiol. Chem., 184, 225 (1929).
Harris, Bur. Stand. J. Research, 16, 475 (1936).
Zincke und Farr, Annalen, 391, 57 (1912).
Schöberl, Annalen, 507, 111 (1933).
Phillips, NATURE, 138, 121 (1936).
Fischer, Annalen, 253, 63 (1889).
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SPEAKMAN, J. Cross Linkage Formation in Keratins. Nature 138, 327 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/138327a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/138327a0
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