Effect of Breed and Age on the Dye Fixation and Optimization of Wool Dyeing with Reactive Dye

Abstract

The present paper investigates the effects of breed and age on the dye fixation on wool using a reactive dye. It also examines the optimization of the dyeing process realized using the response surface methodology. The dyeing step was carried out on raw wool using the bichromatic blue dye reagent Cibacron P-3R (C.I. Reactive Blue 49). The factors affecting the dyeing process, such as ammonia concentration, temperature, and the duration of the dyeing time, were studied using the response surface methodology. The performance of this dyeing process was evaluated by measuring the color yield (the dye fixation). The results have shown that the age and the breed of sheep have a significant effect (P <0.05 %) on the dye fixation rate. This can be attributed to the differences in the amino acids of wool. Additionally, it has been found that the youngest wool and the Sicilo-Sarde breed always yielded the best dye fixation while the oldest wool and the Fine Queue of west breed (QF) have the lowest dye fixation. Using the response surface methodology, this research has proved that the best dyeing quality for the QF is obtained by using an amount of ammonia of 20 ml, a dyeing duration of about 60 min, and a dyeing temperature of about 100 °C.