Aftertreatments of Sulfur Black 1 Dyed Cotton Fabric: Optimization of Process Parameters for Developing a Protective System to Improve Color Retention

Sulfur dyed cellulosic goods exhibit limited wash fastness against oxidative laundering; particularly to washing powder formulations containing activated bleaches. This study presents a novel two-bath exhaust finishing process improve the of Black 1 cotton fabrics reduced with two different reducing agents—sodium sulfide and commercial glucose-based Diresul agent D. The involves sequential aftertreatments cationic fixative synthetic tanning (syntan). A Box-Behnken design three variables: concentrations syntan, application temperature syntan (at levels) was studied understand effects these variables on color retention fabrics. Color sulfur dyeings improved using newly developed process.