Abstract:

The dye was synthesized by nitration of aniline to para-nitro aniline, diazotization and coupling reactions. The melting point of the para-nitro aniline was taken to yield 147ºC. The result from the GC-MS shows that the compound with the highest relative abundance of 100% showed a molecular ion peak of 129.4 compounds which correspond to lower relative abundance. Also from the GC-MS result, the two peaks of masses 57.5 g and 83.4 g respectively correspond to fragments of the samples. Ultra-violet spectrophotometer was used to determine the absorption of the dye. The para-nitro aniline dye as synthesized showed the highest absorbance of 2.214 at 220 nanometers. The dye was applied to pure cotton and cellulose. The percentage shift of the dye toward the fabric i.e. percentage exhaustion of the dye was calculated to yield 73% which shows that the reactive dye has high exhaustion value. Fastness test was carried out on the dyed fabric to characterize the material’s color resistance to fading and running. These tests are heat, light and wash fastness which is rated 1-5 according to Ukponwam and Odilora (2000) where 1 shows poor fastness and 5 very good fastness. The wash, heat and light fastness of 4, 5 and 5 respectively shows that the dyed fabric has an excellent fastness to washing, heating and sun drying.