Dyeing and Computer-Aided Color Matching (CCM) by Reactive Dyeing of Cotton Fabric with Biodegradable Secondary Ethoxylated Alcohol (SAE) Non-ionic Surfactant-Based Reverse Micelles in Non-aqueous Alkane Solvent Medium

Abstract This study investigates the dyeing, computer-aided color matching (CCM), fastness, tensile and surface properties of cotton samples dyed in non-aqueous medium of alkane solvents, including heptane, octane and nonane with the use of biodegradable secondary alcohol ethoxylates (SAE) surfactant-based reverse micelles. Experimental results show that color yield of alkane solvent-dyed batch and standard samples can be 4.7–123.5% and 73.1–91.8% higher than the water-dyed batch and standard samples, respectively. Calibration curves are almost linear in structure and the actual CCM results show less than 30% and 33% difference from the theoretical concentration for aqueous and non-aqueous dyeing, respectively. Reflectance curves are identical in shape. Both samples show good to excellent color evenness, washing, crocking and light fastness and distinctive CIE L * a * b * values, guaranteeing the color quality of the dyed samples. Good tensile and surface properties of the dyed samples were verified by the AATCC test method and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). More than 97% of the alkane solvents can be effectively recovered via simple distillation method. These validate that the use of SAE surfactant-based reverse micelles for dyeing of cotton fabric in alkane non-aqueous medium is potentially applicable for industrial computer-aided color matching with good dyeing properties and color quality comparable to fabrics dyed in conventional water-based system. Graphical Abstract