Investigation of the dyeing properties of sulfur dye on nylon-based artificial suede

Abstract

Nylon-based artificial suede is widely used in textile fabrics owing to its various potential applications such as automotive, sports and leisure, and industrial. It is also known that nylon-based artificial suede is an excellent substitution for natural leather. To substitute natural leather, it is necessary to understand the proper method for dyeing the substitute materials for value addition. However, in general, a large amount of wastewater can be generated by the dip-dyeing method, which increases the cost of the dyeing process. Hence, in this study, we investigated the optimum dyeing conditions of nylon-based artificial suede with sulfur black dye by a continuous process. We found that the optimal conditions were a reduction temperature of $70^{\circ}C$, retention time of 60 s, dye concentration of 30 % o.w.f., reducing agent concentration of 9 g/l, pH of 8.5, and a pad-steam temperature of $100^{\circ}C$ with 15 min of pad-steam followed by a wash with $H_2O_2$. Meanwhile, colorfastness against washing, light, and perspiration for the nylon-based artificial leather in the range of 4 to 5 grades was achieved.