Abstract
MAKING use of a reaction discovered in this laboratory1, Elöd, Nowotny and Zahn2 claim to have shown that disulphide bond breakdown is neither an essential preliminary to the setting of strained animal fibres, nor a necessary cause of supercontraction. Wool fibres were heated with water in presence of mercury at 80°C., hydrogen sulphide being liberated and mercuric sulphide formed as a result of disulphide bond breakdown: Although 45 per cent of the total sulphur was removed in 19 days, suggesting that 90 per cent of the disulphide bonds were hydrolysed, the fibres showed no tendency to contract in either boiling water or boiling hydrochloric acid at pH 2, and their setting power (in an unspecified medium) was unimpaired.
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References
Speakman, J. B., NATURE, 132, 930 (1933); Speakman, J. B., and Cooper, C. A., J. Text. Inst., 27, T 191 (1936).
ElÅd, E., Nowotny, H., and Zahn, H., Koll. Z., 93, 50 (1940).
Speakman, J. B., J. Soc. Dyers and Colourists, 52, 335 (1936); Speakman, J. B., and Whewell, C. S., ibid., 52, 380 (1936); Speakman, J. B., and Stoves, J. L., ibid., 53, 236 (1937).
Speakman, J. B., Stoves, J. L., and Bradbury, H., J. Soc. Dyers and Colourists, 57, 73 (1941).
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SPEAKMAN, J. Reactivity of the Sulphur Linkage in Animal Fibres. Nature 148, 141–142 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/148141a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/148141a0
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