Greenly and Efficiently Dyeing Cotton Fabric with Custom-Tailored Reactive Dyes via Electron Beam Irradiation

Traditional dyeing processes of the textile industry have to use a lot of dyeing assistants and water, resulting in massive lower-biodegradable wastewater and causing great environmental pressure. In this study, we developed a green textile dyeing route featuring high dyeing efficiency and low effluent by using electron beam (E-Beam) irradiation to trigger cotton fabric dyeing with custom-tailored reactive dyes. In which, three vinyl-containing reactive dyes with primary colors were first synthesized and then covalently bonded to cotton fibers via graft copolymerization. The color of the fabric can be facilely tuned by adjusting the ratios of the custom-tailored dyes, which achieved high brilliancy, rich hues, and excellent wash-fastness. Different from the traditional dyeing process, the E-Beam irradiation-induced dyeing process was performed successfully with no requirement to salt, alkali, or heat conditions. Moreover, the utilization of all three dyes was nearly 100% in the E-Beam irradiation-induced dyeing process. Also, almost no residual dyes were washed off from the dyed cotton fabric during the washing process; thus, the spent washing stream exhibited so clean that it completely met the requirements of the zero discharge of hazardous chemical program. This study demonstrated that here E-Beam irradiation-induced dyeing on cotton fabric is a novel green textile dyeing route with energy-saving and pollution-free features, which is beneficial to the transformation to green and sustainable development of the traditional textile industry.