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Anti Back Staining Agent

Article · March 2019

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Touqeer Mehmood
Artistic Milliners
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Introduction:
Denim garments are looked at as a major trend setter by our youth. The spread of denim culture all over
the world brought with it a trend of fast changing fashions. One after another several washes were
introduced such as stone wash, acid wash, moon wash, etc. Over the last decade, India has probably
seen the most dramatic and exciting changes in the washing of denim garments. As per the denim
garment export market, this high quality garment has superior aesthetics and great value for price. In
terms of the quality aspect, back staining plays a vital role in improving the appearance of the denim
garment. Back staining: Back staining implies soiling of the weft thread and the pocket lining by
detached indigo or its reduced leuco form. Back staining mainly occurs during desizing or stone washing
or enzyme stone washing.

Chemistry of Back Staining:

During stone washing or enzyme washing, cellulose is degraded and indigo dye is released. For instance,
the cellulase enzymes are temporarily bound to the cellulose by means of an anchor. This gets split in
terms of 1,4-β glycoside composition. After this process it is made available for further hydrolysis
reaction.

Enzyme-catalyzed hydrolytic dissociation of cellulose

This reaction is much more complicated in detail, as the customary cellulase consists of several
components. Below you can see the dissociation of cellulose in detail:

Hydrolysis of Cellulose: • Endo Gluconases: By means of the endo gluconases the cellulose is dissociated
in a statistically distributed sequence. • Exo Gluconases: The exo gluconases dissociate the cellulose
chains into glucose molecules from the unreduced end. • Cellobiohydrolasis: Separation of cellobiose
(double bond glucose molecule) from the unreduced end of the cellulose. • β- Glucosidasis: Dissociation
of the cellobiose into glucose molecules.

As seen from the picture, the cellulase is degraded hydrolytically by cellulases partially until it becomes
glucose. The glucose is partially able to reduce the indigo, both on the fibre and in the treatment liquor.
This reduced form has low affinity to cellulose fibre and thus soils the weft thread and the pocket lining.
This is also assisted by alkaline conditions and the temperature of the wash bath.

The acid cellulase enzymes have a strong effect on cellulase hydrolysis and create more glucose
formation, resulting in increased back staining of the denim garment. Neutral cellulase has its optimum
pH at 6-8 at temperatures of 50 – 60°C. Compared to acid cellulase they have a less negative effect on
the tensile strength; hence there is less back staining.

As a whole, obtaining a good contrast between the blue and white yarns is often described as minimised
back staining. The contrast is the difference between the blueness of the blue yarns and the whiteness
of the white yarns. But this is difficult to quantify. Therefore, back staining can be quantified by
measuring the re-deposition of indigo on white denim.
Email: touqeer_mehmood1816@yahoo.com
Contact: +92 333 3075668

Anti Back Staining:

In order to avoid such back staining, which will reduce the garment’s value in the world market, some
anti back staining agents are used in the wash bath. These agents are added in the bath along with other
chemicals associated with the respective washes. These agents are the ones capable of prohibiting the
action wherein the removed dyes re-deposit themselves on the garment.

Compositions and Chemistry of the Anti Back Staining Agents:

Anti back staining agents mostly comprise of three substances - dispersing agents, chelating agents, and
emulsifying agents. All these must be of a particular concentration in order to inhibit the adherence of
indigo dyes on the white portions of denim garments. Most of these anti back staining agents are highly
efficient in soft water, but in hard water they might be less effective and so the dyes will re-deposit. This
is so because hard water contains salts, called the electrolytes (exhausting agents), which help indigo
dyes to soil faster. Nowadays, anti back staining agents contain sequestering agents as well, so that they
can be used in hard water. Acid liberating agents are also used along with anti back staining agents to
reduce the alkaline conditions and enhance the enzyme activity.

As a latest innovation we have anti back staining agents made from polyglycol ether derivatives and
polymer phosphates. This is an inbuilt sequestering agent, which can be used more effectively in hard
water.

One of the safest modes of anti back staining is the enzymatical way, where some enzymes, like the
cutinase enzymase and other lipolytic enzymes are also used as anti back staining agents. All these
efficiently reduce back staining, but are costlier too. Some anti back staining agents are used as
afterwashing agents, which have very high emulsification power.

Another way of avoiding back staining is by using oxidizing agents. According to the chemistry of back
staining, it is caused by the formation of glucose during stone or enzyme washing of the denim garment.
This glucose is the reducing agent and it helps the indigo dye to exist on the white part of the denim,
thus reducing the contrast of the garment. Now these oxidizing agents will act on the glucose and
decrease its reducing power and enable zero back staining. These are the bleaching agents such as hypo
chlorites, permanganates, peroxides, etc. There are some mild oxidizing agents also, which are called
Resist Salts.

These oxidizing agents will be added to the enzyme bath or the stone wash bath and will inhibit the
reducing action of glucose during processing. As far as this study is concerned, some denim trials have
been taken in which we found hydrogen peroxide to be a good substitute as an anti back staining agent.
It has to be used in low concentrations to avoid imparting a more bleaching effect on the garment. All
these tests were taken during the enzymatic processing techniques as they are mostly used in all
garment industries. All these trials have been done on both the sample machines and a bulk trial has
also been taken and the report of the same has been given. The results of the trials are as follows:
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