Mixtures of substances, print pastes, printing compositions and treatment liquors having a reducing action

The invention comprises reducing compositions for use in dyeing or printing with vat or sulphur dyes or in bleaching processes said composition comprising a derivature of an alkanesulfinic acid as reducing agent and preferably having 1-4 carbon atoms, and as a redon catalyst a chelate complex of a transition metal having a plurality of valency states of which the lowest in the complex is not the most stable, the concentration of free ions of the transition metal in the compositions being so low that the solubility products of the corresponding metal hydroxides and sulphide are not reached. The term transition metal includes those elements of atomic numbers 21-30, 39-48, 57-80 and 89-102 but iron, cobalt and nickel are the preferred metals. Alkali metal, alkaline earth metal or ammonium salts of alkanesulfinic acids are used especially sodium, potassium, calcium, barium and ammonium salts, and are of general formula, in which Q is a hydroxyl group or a group having the formula, in which A is a hydrogen atom or low molecular weight alkyl group which may be substituted by a group of general formula, in which D is a group having the general formula, In the above formulae X is 0, 1 or 2, Y is 1, 2, or 3, (X + Y) is 3, p is 0, 1 or 2, g is 0, 1 or 2, (p + g) is 2, E1 and G1 are separately alkylene radicals which together contain not more than 3 carbon atoms, n is 0 or 1, m is 0 or 1 and 2 is a cation. Many chelating agents are specified and include 1, 2 dioximes, the Schiff bases of aromatic or aliphatic 1, 3 hydroxy-azo compounds and chelating agents containing the phthalocyamine or porphyrin skeleton. The reducing compositions give higher rates of reduction at about 100 DEG C. and are generally used in alkali solutions. In examples, rayon, cotton cloth, and secondary cellulose acetate are printed using the above reducing compositions, other materials referred to are silk, synthetic polamides, and polyester fabrics. The reducing agent and redon catalyst may be applied together or separately in any order. Specifications 829,177, 829,936, 877,940 and 881,487 are referred to.