Alternative Eco-friendly Treatment of Hollow Cellulosic Fiber-Based Hybrid Composites for Remarkable Reactive Dyeing

Egyptian Chorisia hollow fibers have been blended with cotton waste, polyester waste, and raw bamboo at various ratios and weft counts using open-end spinning. The blended fabrics of hybrid composites were subjected to atmospheric plasma, pectinase, and lipase enzyme treatments, as well as the substitution of all hazardous chemicals, as sustainable alternatives to traditional alkaline scouring. The impacts of the treatments on the hollow-based fabrics' hydrophilicity, surface morphology, and color performance have been discussed. Pretreatment is associated with considerable weight loss (~ 12%) and a wetting time of less than 5 s which represents adequate absorbency of the composite. The enzymatic treatment contributed to looser arrangement of the fibrils which indicates an effective elimination of lignin and hemicellulose. The crystalline sections were greatly influenced by enzymatic treatment, providing effective decrease of cellulose crystallinity by about 30–40% as revealed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements. Compared to conventional scouring, bio-scouring discharges significantly less effluent. The treated composite using either enzyme or plasma pretreatment method produced about at least 300% higher color yield (K/S) and 100% enhanced dye fixation (% F) than the untreated fabric. The lipase pretreatment without subsequent to atmospheric plasma treatment could be enough to achieve the highest hydrophilicity and color performance level under the experimental conditions.