Pretreatment of Cotton with Different Radiations to Improve Colour Strength and Fastness Properties in Reactive Dyeing

 Different types of radiations have been found to be widely applicable in modifying the properties of materials. In this work colour strength (K/S) and colour fastness of reactive dyed cotton fabric has been studied with the application of three radiations; microwave, ultraviolet and ultrasonic. Analysis of variance and comparison of mean values statistical tests were carried out to find out the effect of different radiation treatment time and fabric density on colour strength of cotton fabrics. The colour strength (K/S) of dyed fabric enhanced significantly by pretreatment with different radiations and highest shade depth is achieved in case of microwave in comparison to untreated ultrasonic and ultraviolet irradiated samples. Furthermore, irradiated samples have shown better colour fastness to washing in all three cases. Therefore these radiations can be used to enhance the colour properties of dyed fabrics.