Dyeing of cotton with reactive dyes using pre-treated sea water

The present study explores the use of sea water as dyeing medium for cotton textiles with reactive dyes. Sea water has been pre-treated with calcium oxide/sodium carbonate to remove calcium and magnesium ions. The findings show that the addition of 20 g/L of sodium chloride is required to increase the exhaustion of dye in pre-treated sea water instead of 60 g/L of sodium chloride as required in conventional dyeing method. SEM , KESF and EDAX analyses show no significant difference on the surface of pre-treated sea water dyed and conventional dyed fabrics. It is also found that there is no significant difference in the wash and light fastness properties between pre-treated sea water dyed fabrics and conventional dyed fabrics. The developed process is in the direction of addressing sustainability issues of textile processing industries.