Development of Dissolvable Dye Transfer Inhibitor for Household Laundry

This research is focused on developing a dissolvable composite polymeric film loaded with a dye transfer inhibitor. Pyridine N-oxide (PNO) is one of the amine-based dye transfer inhibitor(DTI) polymers with higher dye inhibition ability. A transparent and water-soluble PNO-loaded polymeric composite film of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA-PNO film) has been developed using the solution casting method, and the process parameters are optimised. The performance of the developed polymeric composite film has been evaluated in terms of dissolving time and dye-transfer inhibition in the laundry. The results indicate that the addition of the cross-linking agent increases the dissolving time of the film, while the addition of the plasticizer reduces it. An average of 8.5min is observed as the dissolving time for the developed product in the presence of detergent. In the laundry process, a colour difference value (ΔE) of 4.763 is noted against Reactive Blue 4 (C₂₃H₁₄Cl₂N₆O₈S), and the performance of the product against multiple dyes is found to be satisfactory. The tensile strength of the film is found as 17.1 Mpa, elongation 113%, and folding endurance 250 times, confirming the better-handling property of the developed film.