A brief idea on influence of pH & alkalinity in reactive dyeing:

pH & alkalinity are two of the most misunderstood, but fundamentally important factors in all fibre cleaning & processing. pH is chemistry shorthand, & depending on who you listen to, pH stands for Potential Hydrogen or Proton Hydrogen (or pouvoir hydrogene for the French). All are correct, but it is preferred that proton hydrogen & it is easier to explain for our purposes. Now hydrogen is pretty fascinating stuff. First of all, it is the smallest of all of atomic elements & it has some serious attitude. It has an atomic weight of 1; a normal hydrogen atom consists of just one proton with one electron whizzing around it so fast that it forms a shell. Chemical symbol for atomic hydrogen is H. Now that sounds okay, but single hydrogen atoms just dont exist as electrons dont like operating alone; it takes a minimum of two electrons to form a shell. Hydrogen atoms get around this problem by teaming up in pairs so they can share their electrons means molecular hydrogen is made up of two protons & two electrons & is written H2. Hydrogen gas is made up of H2 molecules. It also means that hydrogen cannot exist as single hydrogen atoms. Hydrogen has one other option, however. It can get around completely starkersthat is butt naked-without any electrons at all. And this is very significant for us as cleaners. See, proton has a positive electrical charge & electron has an equal negative charge, so as long as they stay together they dont make any trouble. But, if you separate these protons & get a bunch of them on their own, then they would play up like a second hand lawn-mower. Electrons get pretty rowdy. So what is it that comes between a proton & its electron & breaks up this happy picture of domestic bliss? This underrated stuff is the most potent chemical on planet. Water has power to rip hydrogen apart in a process called ionization. Here is kicker. Water is fuel that makes all of this work. Water is H2O, when we pull that water apart in an ionized solution; electrons stay together so that we get one proton which is H+. What is left is called a hydroxyl ion & it keeps that hydrogens electron so it is called OH-. A chemist would write this as H2O = H++OH-. Anyhow, it is this electrical activity that makes these protons & hydroxyls mean dangerous little characters. Now for this to happen there have to be ionizing compound dissolved in water. Pure water wont dissociate on its own. Thats why electronics cleaning systems use pure or de-ionized water. There are two kinds of impurities that cause water to break up in this way: One kind is called acid & Other kind is called alkali or base. Generally, an acid is a substance that releases a positively charged proton into a solution. A base is a chemical that releases a OH - ion into a solution with its negatively charged electron. Now chemists had this figured out a long time ago by a Swede called Arrhenius & a Brit named Lowry worked out that all acids & alkalis work this way. A bit later, a Dane named Sorensen noticed that not all acids & alkalis have same kick. Some alkalis & acids are really potent, while others are as weak as gnats. He came up with an idea that we had to have a way of measuring degree of ionization in a solution; perhaps for compelling reason that it had a huge bearing on
A brief idea on influence of pH & alkalinity in reactive dyeing: Compiled by: M. Rezaul Karim Tutul Page: 1

flavour of beer, what he came up with was pH scale. This is a logarithmic scale that is arbitrarily zeroed at a value of 7 representing neutral (i.e., no ionization). pH can be simply defined as number of ions, positive or negative, available in a solution at any one time.

Acids, alkalis, buffering & titration

Lets talk about alkalinity & buffering. Alkalis are always much more damaging to organic materials than acids. Organic fibres such as wool & silk are made of proteins called polyamides because they are composed of amino acids, means they dont like alkalis. Nylons are synthetic polyamides that have a comparable acid chemistry & acid dyes used on these are, of course, also acidic. So, all of these textile materials (i.e., wool, silk, nylon & dyes used on them) are acidic. They are quite happy in a neutral or slightly acid environment, but any level of alkalinity harm them sooner or later. They can be protected by acidic buffers or damaged by alkaline buffers. So far, more is involved than simply measuring pH. Alkalinity issue is rarely discussed, because it is far simpler to focus on pH, which can be verified with pH paper or a pocket pH meter.

A brief idea on influence of pH & alkalinity in reactive dyeing: Compiled by: M. Rezaul Karim Tutul

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