Dyeing of nylon 6 fabric with a new bifunctional vinyl sulphone reactive disperse dye

A new bifunctional reactive disperse dye containing a temporarily anionic sulphatoethylsulphone and a nonionic disulphide bis(ethylsulphone) groups was synthesised and applied to nylon 6 fabric by the exhaust dyeing at a variety of pH and temperature conditions. A monofunctional reactive disperse dye containing only nonionic disulphide bis(ethylsulphone) group was also synthesised and its dyeing behaviour was compared with the bifunctional dye. The bifunctional reactive disperse dye exhibited high exhaustion and fixation values at pH 6 and 120 °C. The results also indicate that the combination of temporarily anionic and nonionic reactive groups of the bifunctional dye provided great enhancement in dyeing performance compared to that of the monofunctional dye. The dyes also showed very good levelling and fastness properties on nylon 6 fabric.