Dyeing of cotton fibers decrystallized by alkali swelling and partial substitution

This report summarizes the observations made on the dyeing behavior of highly decrystallized cotton fibers obtained by partial acethylation and cyanoethylation of NaOH swollen fibers. The dyeing studies were also carried out after crosslinking these decrystallized samples. A purified direct dyeing Chlorazol Sky‐Blue FF, has been used for the studies. It is observed that partially cyanoethylated and acetylated celluloses show a dye uptake of more than twice that of the corresponding swollen controls even for low degrees of substitution such as about 5.0% acetyl content for the acetylated fibers and 1.0% nitrogen content for the cyanoethylated fiber. On crosslinking also the trend in the dye uptake pattern remained the same, thought the actual amount of dye the fibers could adsorb was markedly reduced. The swollen, substituted, and crosslinked fibers showed a better uniformity of appearance than the swollen and crosslinked fibers.