Dyeing of Cotton/Polyester Fabric with Selected Reactive/Disperse Dyes under Neutral Condition

In order to have the better properties of each component, the use of fabrics prepared from natural and synthetic fibres blends are common. The well known method for the dyeing of this kind of fabrics is either the use of reactive-disperse dye or reactive/disperse dyes blend. For the dyeing of cotton component of the substrate with reactive dyes, the use of alkali is necessary. Since the addition of alkali during the dyeing process could cause unlevel dyeing and also it is time consuming, the dyeing of cotton fabric with selected reactive dyes under neutral condition was investigated. In this method, a mild alkali pretreatment of a selected reactive dye is done before dyeing stage in which the sulphato ethyl sulphone group of the dye is converted to the vinyl sulphone group. So, the role of alkali during dyeing process is performed before the dyeing process starts.The results obtained from the measurement of exhaustion and fixation percentages in dyeing of cotton/polyester substrate with selected reactive dye pretreated in optimised condition/disperse dye showed E%=94%, F%=84% for C.I. Reactive Blue 21 / C.I.Disperse Red 167 and E%=89%, F%=81% for C.I. Reactive Black 5 / C.I. Disperse Red 167. J. Color Sci. Tech. 4(2010), 143- 149© Institute for Color Science and Technology.