The fabric characteristics and the water wetting
and retention properties of the desized (unscoured)
and scoured fabrics are listed in Table 1.
The desizing process substantially reduced the
cos of the original cotton fabrics from 0.37 to
0.068 and water retention value (W) from 0.97 l
mg−1 to 0.39 l mg−1. Alkaline scouring, on the
other hand, increased the cos to 0.765 and W to
0.99 l mg−1. These data are consistent with the
expectation of desizing and scouring, but less than
what was reported previously [2]. Desizing removes
the water-soluble size and exposes the raw
cotton fiber surfaces, which consist of hydrophobic
cuticles and noncellulosics. Scouring removes