Influence of cationization of cotton on reactive dyeing

Abstract

Cationization of cotton is emerging as an effective tool that solves the environmental problems associated with dyeing of cotton with anionic dyes. In this research work, the cationizing efficiency of cationizing agent CIBAFIX WFF was estimated and it was found to be a better one than compared with normal or existing method of reactive dyeing of cotton The influence of process conditions like concentration of cationizing agent, concentration of alkali and temperature of cationization bath on the color strength (K/S) and Total dye utilization percentage (T%) were analyzed and these process conditions are optimized. The optimized process conditions gives better K/S values and T% than the normal reactive dyeing of cotton. The effect of cationization on color strength and color fastness of various reactive dyes was found and cationization shows higher increase in lighter shades and lesser increase in dark shades than normal cotton dyeing. The impact on the environmental pollution and the dyed fabric quality were ascertained and compared with the existing dyeing system and the cationized cotton gives very less (nearly zero) environmental pollution. The cationized cotton shows similar kind of fabric quality as like normal dyeing of cotton. Cationization of cotton with cibafix WFF was found to be a successful and commercially viable process, since it is found to be cheaper than the normal dyeing process.