Investigation of the Properties of Polymer-Titanium Tanned Leather

In the present time, despite all the advantages, the use of chrome-based tanning components are reduced or excluded in leather production, primarily, because of its toxicity and ineffective use of the agents. The new chrome-free tanning method has been offered to replace ship skin pickling with polymeric treatment of rawhide and subsequent titanium tanning. Ammonium titanyl sulfate is used as a tanning agent while polymaleate – as a polymeric material. It has been established that the replacement of pickling with polymeric treatment improves diffusion and exhaustion of titanium tannins from the solution, which, in turn, ensures the formation of the Wet-White leather structure and its thermostability. Polymer-titanium tanning system not only increases the consumption of tanning agents, reduces treatment duration, but also improves physical and mechanical properties of finished leather: strength, elongation, volume yield, thickness yield, porosity, etc. This was confirmed by the results of scanning electronic microscopy, which prove that a tanning method affects morphological changes in leather structure and uniform distribution of tannin into the derma.