Solvent Assisted Dyeing of Acrylics With Basic Dyes

A. M. Gamal¹, M. El-Batouti² and N. F. Al-Harby³

¹Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University (Girls) Cairo (Egypt). ²Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science Alexandria University, Cairo (Egypt). ³Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Arts, Al Qassim University, Al-Qassim (Saudi Arabia).

Acrylic has an additional problem of difficult dye penetration due to its relatively compact physical structure. Addition of benzyl alcohol may modify the structure of fabrics causing an increase in the dye ability. Using the three basic dyes (C.I. Basic Red 12, C.I. Basic Orange 21, and C.I. Basic Violet10) , the rate of dye uptakes was studied in absence and presence of the above additive at different time intervals and temperatures (80,90,95 oC).The obtained results indicate that the dye uptake increases under the different conditions mentioned. The highest dye exhaustion was obtained using 2%(V/V) benzyl alcohol/water mixture this was attributed to the increase in the accessibility of the acrylic fabrics in presence of benzyl alcohol. The rate of dyeing is closely related to the diffusion behavior of dyes. The dyeing rate increases with increasing diffusion coefficient of the dye. The calculated activation energy in presence of solvent gave another evidence for this conclusion. It is observed that optimum limit of benzyl alcohol concentration varies from dye to dye and is closely related to its molecular size. The obtained results indicate that benzyl alcohol gave a maximum increase in dye uptake, even at a low concentration.

Basic dyes; acrylic fibers; benzyl alcohol; Kinetic; pH