Dyeing behaviors of ionic liquid treated wool

In this article, a new class of “green” solvent—ionic liquid (IL) was employed to improve the dyeability of wool. The physical and chemical properties of the IL‐treated wool, such as surface morphology, wettability, and tensile strength were first analyzed, and then the dyeing properties of IL‐treated wool were investigated in terms of dyeing rate, dyeing exhaustion at equilibrium, color depth, and color fastnesses. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) images showed eroded marks on IL‐treated wool fiber surfaces. The water contact angle of the fabric treated with IL at 100°C decreased from 118.6° to 106.4°. The tensile strength of IL‐treated wool fibers was slightly decreased when the treating temperature was less than 100°C. Dyeing kinetics experiments revealed that the IL treatments greatly increased initial dyeing rate, shortened half‐dyeing time, and time to reach dyeing equilibrium. The final exhaustion and color depth of IL‐treated wool were also increased accompanying with slightly decreased color fastness. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010