Investigation of physicochemical, thermophysical and surface properties of fatliquors

Fatliquors are very important chemicals (chemically modified products of animal and vegetable oil) used during the fatliquoring process, a unit operation in the leather making measure and helps to maintain the softness and flexibility of leather. A fatliquor is utilized to lubricate and reduce the friction between the leather fibres with different chemical compositions/structures (or ratios) for making leather. In this paper, we examined the physicochemical properties of different types of fatliquors (viz., phospholipid, silicone, paraffin and synthetic oil-based, etc.) by different techniques (viz., conductometric, viscometric, DSC and TGA (thermal behaviours), microscopic, particle size (mean/average), the zeta potential, etc.). The present study will guide to make or formulate fatliquors which will help to improve the quality of the leather according to the market demands. The information in this work’s findings will assist in choosing a reasonable fatliquor for planning a fatliquoring manner for improving quality leather.