[yodafang]

Hey, I'm doing a science fair project dealing with the dyeing of pieces of cloth. I have already experimented and concluded that temperature helps retain the color of dye the best.

I'm thinking that it might have to do with how the particles move faster when the liquid boils.

Can anyone explain the reasoning of this for me or refer me to any helpful sites? I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

[P]

I'm thinking that it might have to do with how the particles move faster when the liquid boils.

Just a guess here yodafang - if the particles are moving faster due to the higher temperature, as you suggested,  wouldn't they penitrate deeper and more evenly throughout the cloth - Thus giving a better dye?

[ARGOS++]

Dear Yodafang,

First you have to distinguish the different Dyes and their Application method:
(But I will only talk about methods that start from an “Aqueous Phase”!)

• A.)   Reactive Dyes for Wool, Cotton, Polyamides, and similar:
  For them a certain individual temperature is essential to start the particular reaction which bounds the dye molecule to the fibres. Above this temperature the reaction is very fast and quite quantitative as our results shows.
• B.)   “Substantial Dyes” (direct/exhausting dyes) are “bound” by adhesion forces:
  For this dyeing method temperature is quite important for “at least” two reason.
  Thought a little simplified the temperature increases the “Osmotic Pressure” of the Dye molecules and so the dying process, which is much slower then for the reactives, is accelerated.
  But temperature helps also (but it is not the only) to get a more “equal dyeing result” (I’m not sure if this may be the correct English term for to get a dyeing which has at any and all cm² the identical dye concentration. In German the term is called “egal”).
• C.)   Anthraquinones & Indigos, and similar:
  This application method is too different.
• D.)   About other dyeing methods I don’t know enough.

Good Luck!
                    ARGOS⁺⁺