Chemical: Any substance that is formed when two or more other substances act upon one

another or that is used to produce a change in another substance. It is a substance obtained by

a chemical process or producing a chemical effect.

Form of Chemicals:
Forms of Textile chemical: Generally two forms of chemical found in textile wet process industry

1. Solid chemicals (Granular, powder, fine powder, micro fine powder etc.)

2. Liquid (a mixture of different component in the form of solution, suspension, emulsion etc.)

Mixture:

A mixture is not a pure substance but a combination of two or more substances that are not
chemically combined with each other and are able to separate.
Measure of chemicals:

Solid chemicals are measured by their weight where liquid chemicals measured by their density

Solution: Solutions are homogenous mixtures of two components; solute and solvent.
Both solute and solvent can exist in any of 3 physical states of matter; solid, liquid and gases. Solution
can be classified into different way like

1. On the basis of concentration of solute, solution can be classified as

 Dilute
 Concentrated
2. On the basis of solvent solution can be classified as
 Aqueous solutions
 Non-aqueous solution

3. On the basis of saturation

 Saturated
 Unsaturated Solutions

The strength of a textile chemical solution is depend on the amount of dissolved solute

Amount of solute Concentration Strength of chemical

Every chemical used in wet process specialy acid, alkali, H2O2 & others should have a specific strength
to perform different process without damaging the material or deteroided the quality

List of chemicals used in textile wet process industry

 Auxiliary textile chemicals:

 Textile Basic chemicals

 Finishers or Finishing chemicals

Auxiliary textile chemicals

This category covers a wide range of chemicals

 Complexing agents : Which form stable water soluble complexes

 Surfactants: which decreases the surface tension of water, such that oils and grease can be
removed easily.
 Wetting agents: which speeds up the penetration of finishing liquors.
 Sequestering agents: To reduce hardness in dyebath & deactivate metal ions
 Dispersing agents:
 Levelling agent
 Anticreasing agent
 Antimigrating agent
 Soaping agent
 Antifoaming agent
 Peroxide killer
Textile Basic chemicals

 Dyes & pigment

 Salt
 Soad
 Acid
 Thickner
 Fixing agents
 pH regulators
 Carriers
 Oxidising agent & reducing agent
Finishes:

 Enzymes
 Softener
 Easycare finish
 Delustering Agent
 Polyurethane Finishing Agent
 Water Repellant & Soil Resisting Agent
 Binder

“pH” stands for “potential hydrogen” In chemistry, pH is a numeric scale used to specify the acidity or
alkalinity of an aqueous solution. A pH value from 0-7 is classified as “acidic”, while anything from 7-14 is
classified as “alkaline”. Pure water has a neutral pH level of 7, meaning it has the same amount of acids
and alkalis, which balance each other out.

Every chemical reaction works best at a certain pH. In certain pH modification either fiber or dye
molecule happen result dye-fiber bonding. Every preparatory, dyeing & finishing operation have a pH
range & the effect of variation in pH may observed in dyed or finished material.