what is the fibre used for making artificial silk?

Question

Artificial silk used for making art silk sarees

Answer 1

"Artificial silk is everything billed as silk that doesn't come from the silkworm cocoon. Most often this means mercerized cotton; sometimes it means a manufactured fiber like rayon or a blend of chemically altered and/or manufactured fibers."

Mercerized cotton: cotton fiber that is stretched while being treated with caustic soda (NaOH, also known as sodium hydroxide). this swells the cotton and increases its luster. the cotton is then singed to remove the fuzz and then "calendered" by being passed through heated rollers. Cotton is cellulose (C6H10O5).

Rayon: "rayon is produced by first dissolving cellulose (obtained from cotton or woodpulp) to produce a thick yellow liquid called viscose. The viscose is extruded through tiny holes into a chemical bath that produces long filaments which can be spun into thread and yarn."

Very informative website below with photos and tons of information on how to tell if your rug is really silk (or is it fake?). For example you can take a piece of it and burn it and see what happens (but try not to burn your house -- or the store -- down!)

Answer 2

"Art Silk" (short for "artificial") covers quite a number of different fibers. Most of the time when you see it coming out of India (sarees) it refers to either rayon or polyester, or a blend.