Characterization and Mechanism of Zinc Salts as Tanning Agents

Abstract

Zinc has important biological functions as one of the essential trace elements to human. The Zinc tanning agent could produce white leathers with properties comparable to the chrome tanning agent, and the tanning agents based on Zinc salts were prepared using different masking agents such as sodium formate, sodium acetate, sodium tartarate and potassium hydrogen phthalate. The selection of the zinc tanning agents has been optimized based on the properties like hydrothermal stability and percentage exhaustion of zinc. The results indicated that zinc sulfate can be used as tanning agent under acidic conditions (50g/L, pH=3, 25Ž) and is an effective and superior method. Moreover, Sodium citrate (0.1mol/L) was selected as masking agent compared with other masking agents. The hydrothermal stability was improved effectively with the action of masking agent.