Chemical modification of cotton to improve fibre dyeability

A new fibre‐reactive quaternary compound containing an acrylamide residue was synthesised and used as a cotton modification reagent. The agent was applied to cotton fabrics using a pad‐bake process. It was found that the treated fibre could be dyed with reactive dyes without the addition of salt or alkali. The reactive dyes were almost completely exhausted and showed a high degree of covalent bonding with the pretreated cellulose. The effect of varying the pretreatment conditions was investigated and the optimum conditions for pretreating and dyeing were established.