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

Pretreatment of wool/polyester blend fabric with monochlorotriazinyl β-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 β-CD (60 g/L), Fixapret® ECO (20 g/L), citric acid (5 g/L), PEG-600 (10 g/L), wet-pickup (70%), thermofixing at 120 °C/5 min, thoroughly washing, drying, followed by post-printing with disperse dyes and finally steaming at 140 °C for 30 min. Our experimental results reveal that fixing of the used monochlorotriazinyl β-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.