The Use of Ozone Technology for Color Stripping and Obtaining Vintage Effect on Reactive Dyed Cotton Fabrics

Today, innovative productions have gained great importance to meet customer expectations. In this study, color stripping in reactive dyed knitted cotton fabrics with ozone technology was investigated. Furthermore, it was also aimed to obtain vintage effect by fading the color with the ozonation process. For this purpose, fabrics were dyed into three primer colors, namely yellow, red and blue, and also black color, then they were subjected to ozonation at different durations and the resulting stripping efficiency was evaluated in comparison with conventional caustic-hydrosulfite stripping method. From the color fading values (%), it is possible to say that yellow is the hardest and blue is the easiest to fade among the three primer colors. It was observed that as the ozonation time increased, the color lightened, but the actual fading occurred within the first 15 minutes, after which the change in color was smaller. Besides, it has been shown that if the ozonation is done for a very short time such as 5 minutes on reactive dyed fabrics, the vintage effect can be obtained. On the other hand, color stripping can be achieved as an alternative to caustic-hydrosulfite treatment, if the ozonation is performed for 15 minutes or longer.

Automated summary

Innovative productions play a vital role in meeting customer demands. This study focused on color stripping in reactive dyed knitted cotton fabrics using ozone technology, aiming to achieve a vintage effect through fading. Results showed that the intensity of color fading is related to the duration of ozonation, with minimal changes observed after 15 minutes.