The leather manufacturing is traditionally responsible for high environmental pollution. Tannery effluent contains, indeed, large amounts of lime sludge, sulfides, acids, toxic metals salts, in particular chromium sal...The leather manufacturing is traditionally responsible for high environmental pollution. Tannery effluent contains, indeed, large amounts of lime sludge, sulfides, acids, toxic metals salts, in particular chromium salts, which are toxic, non-biodegradable and hardly disposable. For this reason, great research efforts are addressed to establish a significantly eco-sustainable and convenient business for companies and to produce high quality leather products. The replacement of current commercial chemical and toxic products with innovative natural/naturalized products and technologies in some crucial phases of the tanning cycle （mainly bating and defatting）, can induce an eco-friendly reduction of the needed chromium amount. Leather samples, treated with innovative bating and defatting products and tanned by several different Cr contents, were characterized by SEM-EDS （Scanning Electron Microscopy equipped with Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy） and TGA （Thermogravimetric Analysis）. SEM-EDS was used to observe the surface and cross-section morphology and to provide a semi-quantitative elemental analysis, while TGA to evaluate the thermal stability and decomposition phases. The compatibility of the innovative products was demonstrated and the environmental impact of the process, performed by the effluents characterization, was effectively improved as a result of a 20% Cr lowering. The use of innovative products and the chromium reduction did not affect the thermal stability, leather morphology and not involve significant differences in the composition.展开更多
文摘The leather manufacturing is traditionally responsible for high environmental pollution. Tannery effluent contains, indeed, large amounts of lime sludge, sulfides, acids, toxic metals salts, in particular chromium salts, which are toxic, non-biodegradable and hardly disposable. For this reason, great research efforts are addressed to establish a significantly eco-sustainable and convenient business for companies and to produce high quality leather products. The replacement of current commercial chemical and toxic products with innovative natural/naturalized products and technologies in some crucial phases of the tanning cycle （mainly bating and defatting）, can induce an eco-friendly reduction of the needed chromium amount. Leather samples, treated with innovative bating and defatting products and tanned by several different Cr contents, were characterized by SEM-EDS （Scanning Electron Microscopy equipped with Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy） and TGA （Thermogravimetric Analysis）. SEM-EDS was used to observe the surface and cross-section morphology and to provide a semi-quantitative elemental analysis, while TGA to evaluate the thermal stability and decomposition phases. The compatibility of the innovative products was demonstrated and the environmental impact of the process, performed by the effluents characterization, was effectively improved as a result of a 20% Cr lowering. The use of innovative products and the chromium reduction did not affect the thermal stability, leather morphology and not involve significant differences in the composition.
