Effects of reductive stripping of reactive dyes on the quality of cotton fabric

Some common problems of textile dyeing industries include uneven or faulty dyeing and formation of color patches on the fabric surface during dyeing and downstream processing of textiles materials. Such problems in the finished quality of fabric are generally tackled through a chemical stripping process which is a common practice in dyeing industries for the deep shade batches. However, reactive dyes cannot be stripped satisfactorily from cellulosic materials due to the formation of co-valent bonds between dye and fiber. This research was undertaken using 2.5% and 5% bi-hetero reactive dyes on pretreated cotton fabric and dye stripping was carried out in alkali reductive stripping process. The aim of the work was to investigate the effects of dye stripping on the quality of cotton fabric. Strength loss, weight loss, pilling resistance and absorbency of stripped fabric were calculated. Though with the increase of concentration of stripping chemicals and temperature, stripping percentages were improved; processing damage to the fabric such as losses in strength, weight and pilling resistance ratings was found. In contrast, increased fabric absorbency was found due to stripping. This is explained that during stripping, alkaline solution as an intracrystalline swelling agent is effective in loosening the crystalline region of cotton in addition to the amorphous region. Stripping agent can also attack such crystalline region. As a result, cotton fiber can release maximum number of hydroxyl groups which previously formed covalent bonds. This is the reason behind the stripped fabric having more water absorbency.