Impact of Artificial Perspiration on Photo-stability of Reactive Dyes on Cellulose

The photo-reactions between metabolic products of human sweat and dyestuffs on garments may produce many toxic substances which could directly contact skin and threaten human health. In order to investigate the impact of the perspiration on photo-fading of reactive dyes on cellulose, nine commercial reactive dyes belonging to three types of chromophores (azo, Cu-complex azo and anthraquinone) respectively were chosen and their perspiration-light stability on cotton fabric was studied following ATTS test standard. It is found that the impact of the artificial perspiration on dyes varies with different chromophores: anthraquinone reactive dyes always show the best photo-stability, whereas Cu-complex azo reactive dyes appear to be the most sensitive under exposure to light and perspiration. The pH value of perspiration also greatly influences the fading of dyes with different reactive groups: the fading rate of most chlorotriazinyl reactive dyes in acidic perspiration (pH=3.5) is higher than in alkaline perspiration (pH=8.0), while the reverse is true for most vinylsulphonyl dyes. Furthermore, the study of the contribution of individual component of the artificial perspiration discloses that L-Histidine monohydrochloride monohydrate, DL-Aspartic acid and lactic acid play the major roles on the photo-fading of those selected dyestuffs and inorganic salts including disodium hydrogen phosphate and sodium chloride usually decelerate photo-fading.