Adsorption and dyeing characteristics of reactive dyes onto cotton fiber in nonionic Triton X-100 reverse micelles

The nonionic reverse micelles used for dyeing cotton fiber were prepared with a non-ionic surfactant Triton X-100 (TX-100) by injecting small amount of reactive dye aqueous solution. The adsorption capacity of three water-soluble anionic azo dyes including Reactive Blue 222, Reactive Red 195 and Reactive Yellow 145 onto cotton fiber was investigated. The Langmuir and Freundlich isothermals were employed to model the adsorption data. In addition, the color strength and fixation rate of cotton fabrics dyed in the reverse micelles and bulk water were examined and compared. The salt and alkali as influencing factors were also discussed. The FT-IR spectra were employed to study the polarity of water added in reverse micelles. The results indicated that the adsorption of the dyes onto cotton showed better agreement with Langmuir model. The adsorption process was monolayer adsorption. Reactive Yellow 145 with lower negative charge and higher hydrophilicity exhibited the higher adsorption capacity. The fixation percentage and color strength of the cotton fiber dyed in TX-100 reverse micelles was higher than those in bulk water. The polarity of water in TX-100 reverse micelles was lower than that in bulk water.