International Journal of Advanced Materials Research Vol. 6, No. 3, 2020, pp. 37-42 http://www.aiscience.org/journal/ijamr ISSN: 2381-6805 (Print); ISSN: 2381-6813 (Online) * Corresponding author E-mail address: Dye Uptake Assessment of Cotton and Baft Fabrics Washed with Some Selected Nigerian Detergents Idowu Funso Israel * , Poopola Adeola Victor, Oyetade Joshua Akinropo Department of Chemistry, School of Sciences, The Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria Abstract Prior to dyeing process, there are certain vital pre-treatment processes that must be given to fabrics. One of which is the scouring of fabrics with detergents. These detergents are known as amphiphathic substances. However, it needful to determine the effectiveness of these detergents used in scouring fabrics by measuring the dye-uptake of the textile material scoured with these detergents during dyeing process. This was done by the use of seven (7) selected Nigerian domestic detergents of known chemical constituents. The cotton and the baft textile sample swabs of 50 cm X 50 cm dimension (7.1g + 0.2) was pre-washed with Nittol, Virony, Ariel, Omo, Zip, Waw and Sunlight detergents of known concentration and goods to liquor ratio of 1:50. These textile swabs were rinsed for 5 times and oven dried at 50°C. Then the pre-mordanting treatment was done to enhance optimum dye absorption of the textile substrates through the use of 1% commercial alum. Each washed textile sample swabs was stepped into the mordanting liquor at 27°C. The wave scan and the calibration curve of the dye stuff used (Plant pigment: Pigment Vegetal) was determine using the UV- Visible spectrophotometer. Each dye bath of known concentration (0.29/100ml) was prepared for dyeing the textile swabs and the percentage dye uptake was determined alongside the control textile (textile swabs not washed without detergent), for a dyeing duration of 1-20 min. The baft textile samples generally have higher dye uptake value than the pure cotton. However, out of seven detergents, only Virony (48.91%) and Omo (52.14%) have the highest dye uptake at 360 and 180 seconds respectively. Keyword Cotton, Baft, Detergent, Dye Uptake, Washing Dyeing etc Received: September 17, 2020 / Accepted: October 28, 2020 / Published online: November 6, 2020 @ 2020 The Authors. Published by American Institute of Science. This Open Access article is under the CC BY license. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 1. Introduction Over the years, cellulosic fabrics especially cotton as gain predominant interest of world’s textile traders, dyers and colourist [1-2]. This interest is based on various advantageous properties of the fibre that make up the fabric. These include hydrophilicity, air permeability, biodegradability, and a lack of static electricity [3]. Similarly, Baft fabrics (coarse cotton fabrics) also belong to this cellulosic category, whose morphological appearance has lesser orientation when compared to the pure cotton which is crystalline (well oriented) in nature [4]. Cotton is a cellulosic material which exists as a linear polymer consisting of b-D glucopyranose units covalently linked by 1,4-glycosidic bonds [5-6]. Each glucose unit consists of a hydroxyl group which is the main sites of dye fixation as well as chemical modification. The dye often used for this category of fibres is known as the reactive dye [7]. Furthermore, cotton fabrics are primarily dyed with reactive dyes because of the brilliancy, varieties of hue, and high wash- fastness of reactive dyes, which are anionic in nature [8-12]. However, prior to the dyeing operation, scouring (washing) with detergents is essential to remove the extraneous materials and saponify the plant fats which forestalls dye uptake of the fabrics