How to solve the problem of poor light fastness of reactive dyes?

In the textile printing and dyeing industry, reactive dyes are widely used in dyeing and printing of cotton, linen, viscose and other fibers with the advantages of complete color spectrum, bright colors, simple operation and moderate price. However, poor light fastness has always been a technical shortcoming that reactive dyes cannot avoid, especially in outdoor textiles, curtains, household goods, sportswear and other applications with high light requirements.

Reasons for poor light fastness

The light fastness of reactive dyes mainly depends on the structure of the dye molecules and the combination of dyes on the cloth. The following points are the key reasons for the low light fastness:

Unstable dye structure: The unsaturated structure in some reactive dye molecules is easily decomposed under ultraviolet light, resulting in fading.

Shallow combination with fibers: Although reactive dyes can form covalent bonds with fibers, the light resistance of the dye molecules themselves is weak and easily destroyed by light.

Red and yellow are particularly weak among the three primary colors: Reactive red and reactive yellow are difficult to balance bright color and high fastness in structure, becoming the "shortcoming" of light fading.

Conventional solutions and limitations

In order to improve light fastness, the industry usually adopts the following methods:

Adding post-processing auxiliaries: such as UV absorbers, light stabilizers, etc., but the cost is often increased and the effect is limited.

Using with high-fastness dyes: The shortcomings of the three primary colors are compensated by mixing color formulas, but color deviation is prone to occur.

Increasing dyeing depth: Increasing the amount of dye to delay fading, but it is easy to cause a hard feel and difficult to control color difference.

However, these solutions are mostly stopgap measures and cannot fundamentally solve the pain points of reactive dyes in high sunlight applications.

New breakthrough: EDN high light fastness three primary color solution

In response to customers' growing demand for high light fastness textiles, we have developed and launched a new EDN three primary color series of reactive dyes, designed for high light fastness applications. The biggest highlight of this series of products is:

Light fastness reaches 5-6 levels (ISO 105-B02 standard), which is much higher than the 3-4 levels of conventional active primary colors;

Maintain bright and full color performance without sacrificing color brightness;

Good compatibility, suitable for conventional active dyeing process, easy to promote and use;

Especially suitable for outdoor clothing, curtains, sunshade cloth, functional cotton products and other high-demand scenes.

Through in-depth optimization and directional screening of dye molecular structure, we have successfully solved the problem of light fastness of active dyes that has long plagued the industry, bringing higher value solutions to textile customers.

If you are interested in learning about the proofing performance and technical information of our EDN three primary colors, please feel free to contact us. We are happy to provide you with professional technical support and sample services.  contact us :info@tiankunchemical.com

Let reactive dyeing no longer be afraid of light!