Union disperse printing and UV-protecting of wool/polyester blend using a reactive beta-cyclodextrin

Abstract

Pretreatment of wool/polyester blend fabric with monochlorotriazinyl beta-CD was carried out for modifying the wool component to be able to form "host-guest" inclusion complexes with disperse dyes during the subsequent disperse printing step thereby leading to union disperse printing. The optimum sequence/conditions of treatment based on the data obtained were: padding of the blend fabric with an aqueous formulation composed of monochlorotriazinyl beta-CD (60 g/L), Fixapret (R) ECO (20 g/L), citric acid (5 g/L), PEG-600 (10 g/L), wet-pickup (70%), thermofixing at 120 degrees C/5 min, thoroughly washing, drying, followed by postprinting with disperse dyes and finally steaming at 140 degrees C for 30 min. Our experimental results reveal that fixing of the used monochlorotriazinyl beta-CD onto and/or within the wool component has modified its structure thereby increasing its ability to pick-up, adsorb as well as to retain the guest disperse dye vapors into its grafted hydrophobic cavities, which in turn resulted in attaining union-disperse printing with deeper shades and remarkable fastness properties. As a result of inclusions, the obtained prints exhibit excellent UV-protecting functions. The surface morphology has been studied using SEM micrographs. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.