Preparation, characterization, and dyeing properties of calcium alginate fibers

Abstract A novel attempt has been investigated in this article to dye calcium alginate fibers with acid dyes. The calcium alginate fibers were prepared by wet spinning and their dyeing properties were studied. Scanning electron microscopy analysis revealed that the surface of calcium alginate fibers was relatively smooth and uniform with many small grooves. The X‐ray diffraction results indicated that the crystallinity of the fibers was 61%. The dyeing conditions were optimized by testing the exhaustion (%). Moreover, the kinetics of dyeing calcium alginate fibers was determined as a function of dyeing time with various acid dyes. The results also showed that the calcium alginate fibers exhibited good dyeability with the fastnesses to washing and dry rubbing around 4 grades. At the same time, the dyeing process had no significant influence on the mechanical properties of the fibers with the strength loss only around 0.3 cN/dtex. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012