Facile Synthesis of Novel Disperse Dyes for Dyeing Polyester Fabrics: Demonstrating Their Potential Biological Activities

Original work showed the composition of the dyes and the antimicrobial/UV protective properties of a series of dyes obtained in our laboratories over the past twelve years in an easy way using microwave technology and their comparisons with conventional methods. The results we obtained clearly indicated that by using the microwave strategy, we were able to synthesize the new disperse dyes in minutes and with a much higher productivity when compared to the traditional methods, which took a much longer time, sometimes up to hours. We also introduced ultrasonic technology in dyeing polyester fabrics at 80 °C for an environmentally friendly approach, which was an alternative to traditional dyeing methods at 100 °C; we obtained a much higher color depth than traditional dyeing methods reaching 102.9%. We presented both the biological activity of the prepared new dyes and the fastness properties and clearly indicated that these dyes possess biological activity and high fastness properties.We presented through the results that when dyeing polyester fabrics with some selected disperse dyes, the color strength of polyester fabrics dyed at high temperatures was greater than the color strength of polyester fabrics dyed at low temperatures by 144%, 186%, 265% and 309%. Finally, we presented that a ZnO or TiO(2) NPs post-dyeing treatment of polyester fabrics is promising strategy for producing polyester fabrics possess multifunction like self-cleaning property, high light fastness, antimicrobial and anti-ultraviolet properties.