An eco-friendly facile approach for imparting multifunctional protection properties to cellulose/wool blends

A green facile nano-finishing route was developed to impart high antibacterial efficacy, UV-protection, self-cleaning and anti-wrinkle functions to cotton/wool and viscose/wool blends using TiO2, and/or Ag-NPs, as active ingredients, along with citric acid and/or succinic acid/ SHP as ester-crosslinking/fixing systems. The data so obtained demonstrated that outstanding durable functional properties can be achieved using the following formulation: TiO2/Ag-NPs (20 g/L each), citric acid/SHP (50 g/L/30 g/L) and the pad- dry microwave fixation at 1300 W for 5 min. SEM and EDX analysis for selected samples as well mode of interactions among the nominated finishing ingredients and the treated substrates were also investigated.

Research on microwave pad dyeing process for wool fabric

Purpose This paper aims to study microwave pad dyeing process for wool fabric. Influences of various dyeing process conditions including galactomannan dosage, urea dosage, sodium bisulphite dosage, pH value, microwave irradiation power, treating time and cold batching time before microwave fixation on K/S values were analysed. The colour yield, fixation and levelness were compared between microwave fixation and cold batching fixation. Design/methodology/approach Colour yield (K/S values) was calculated using a Datacolor SF650 colour measuring and matching instrument (10° standard observer, CIE D65 light source Measuring; Datacolor, USA) and was used to determine the depth of the shade of dyed wool fabrics. Levelness of dyeing was evaluated also using the Datacolor SF650 colour measuring and matching instrument by measuring average deviation (S), range (P) of the maximum and the minimum for lightness (L), chroma (C) and hue (h), and balanced colour difference (ΔE) at 20 specified uniform locations on the wool fabrics. The colour difference was calculated as per the equation ΔE=(ΔL2+Δa2+Δb2)1/2 as appearing in the Experimental section. Fixation was determined using a Datacolor SF650 colour measuring and matching instrument by measuring ratio the of K/S for wool fabrics that were rinsed, washed, neutralised and then dried, and wool fabrics that were dried after fixation without washing. The pH of the padding solution was evaluated using a PHSJ-4A PH meter (Datacolor, USA). SEM analysis was done on JEOL JSM-5600LV machine (JEOL Ltd, Japan). Findings This study is based on application of microwave technology in the processing of silk. Originality/value It was found in laboratory experiments that uniform dyeing and deeper colour can be achieved throughout the microwave pad dyeing process for wool by using galactomannan. The novel process could reduce the dyeing time and the energy consumption of the traditional cold pad-batch dyeing process for wool fabric.