Sustainable reactive dyeing of polyester/cotton blend fabric via papain enzyme surface modification
摘要
This study establishes a sustainable, one-bath dyeing technique for polyester/cotton (PES/CO) blend fabric utilizing a single reactive dye, thereby eliminating the conventional requirement for a two-bath procedure using both disperse and reactive dyes. The main objective is to change the surface of the fabric using papain enzyme (Carica Papaya) so that it may be dyed well at low temperatures. The best enzymatic pretreatment settings were found to be 30 °C, 14 w/v% papain, and 50 min using a Box-Behnken design for optimization. Subsequent dyeing under optimized conditions (2.48 w/v% dye, 67 °C, 50 min), showed a medium color strength (K/S) of 2.8. analysis via FT-IR spectroscopy confirmed the surface modification of the cotton component, while DSC, tensile strength, and UV–VIS measurements demonstrated that the enzymatic treatment preserved the functional and mechanical properties of the fabric. This method provides a cost-effective, energy-efficient, and sustainable solution for dyeing polyester/cotton fabrics, markedly decreasing water, chemical, and energy usage.