Preparation of aluminium sulphate from kaolin and its performance in combination tanning

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Date
2019-07-25Author
China, Cecilia
Hilonga, Askwar
Maguta, Mihayo
Nyandoro, Stephen
Kanth, Swarna V.
Jayakumar, Gladstone
Njau, Karoli
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Leather making commonly use chromium salts to produce high quality products. However, the use of chromium salts is
compromised by environmental safety concerns. Combination tanning using vegetable tanning coupled with aluminium
sulphate can sustainably replace chrome tanning system. Adversely, the use of commercial aluminium sulphate poses
economic burden that entails for cost effective sources. Abundance of kaolin on earth’s crust with scarce utilization is an
opportunity towards cost effective aluminium sulphate for tanning. Therefore, in the present work aluminium sulphate
was prepared from kaolin and its performance for combination tanning was studied. Diffraction and vibrational spectroscopic
studies were carried out to confirm the prepared aluminium sulphate. Combination tanning was carried out
with mimosa vegetable tannins. Leathers tanned with the combination of aluminium sulphate from kaolin and mimosa
vegetable tannin exhibited hydrothermal stability of up to 118 °C as compared to mimosa alone that showed the average
of 80 °C. Physical strength characteristics met the standard norms. Fibers separation was good as confirmed through
microscopic studies. The study provides a new