The effect of tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine on the dyeing of wool fabrics with natural dyes

• Tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine was introduced in the dyeing of wool fabrics.
• The dyeing wool fabrics exhibited high dye adsorption and low dye desorption.
• The diffusion coefficient of dyes was increased with the addition of tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine.
• The dyeing entropy and enthalpy were decreased with the addition of tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine.

The influence of the introduction of tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine on the dyeing of wool with natural dyes was studied and the kinetics and thermodynamics of the dyeing process were also investigated. None of the previous techniques employed report the possibility of modification of wool fibers with tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine for dyeing. The modified wool fabrics represented important advances in dye adsorption and decrease in dye desorption at a low dyeing temperature (80 °C) that are not available in the other systems without metallic mordants. Our results demonstrated that the adsorption of natural dyes on wool fabrics was greatly improved through the selective reduction of disulphide bonds with tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine. In addition, experiment data was analyzed using pseudo-second order kinetics and Langmuir type isotherms. The results indicated that the diffusion coefficient of dyes was increased while the dyeing entropy and enthalpy were decreased with the introduction of tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine.