Reactive Dyes
Reactive dye is the dye that can react with a fibre to form a covalent link, that is forming a permanent attachment in the fibre and could not be removed by repeated treatment with boiling water under neutral conditions. Consequently, the dyes become parts of the fibre, leading to outstanding colour fastness to wash.
A dye, which is capable of reacting chemically with a substrate to form a covalent dye substrate linkage, is known as reactive dyes.
The reactive dyes constitute the most commonly used class of dyes for dyeing cellulosic textiles, because of their good all-round properties, such as water solubility, ease of application, variety of application methods, availability of different shades, brightness of color shades, good to excellent wash and light fastness and moderate price. Reactive dyes may have poor fastness to chlorine bleach.
Reactive dyes are mainly used for dyeing cellulose fibres such as cotton and viscose, but they are also increasingly gaining importance for wool and polyamide. The range of available reactive dyes is wide and enables a large number of dyeing techniques to be used.
- M Dyes
- H Dyes
- ME Dyes
- HE Dyes
