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 60C. 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.

Anti Back Staining:

In order to avoid such back staining, which will reduce the garments 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 after-washing 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:

On analysing the oxidising agents used in this study we found

that hydrogen peroxide proves to be the safest anti back staining
agent than the rest. The hypochlorite imparts some yellowness
after being kept for a long time and is also toxic in nature. The
potassium permanganate also imparts a slightly yellower tone.
But peroxide gives a brighter look and gives better results at very
low concentrations. The working of the peroxide as an anti back
staining agent is very simple. Say, when the denim garments are
in the bath its pH will be slightly alkaline. So this helps the
peroxide to start liberating nascent oxygen thereby helping in
anti back staining activities. So, this way the denim garments are
imparted with a good salt and pepper effect than with other anti
back staining agents.

Epilogue:

The project results, samples and the photographs indicate that usage of oxidising agents
like potassium permanganate, sodium hypochlorite, hydrogen peroxide in the enzyme
bath provide good anti back staining properties. It was found that hydrogen peroxide
was performing well as an anti back staining agent with dosage between 0.5 to 1.0%.
This also proves to be the most cost-effective anti back staining agent. In both dosages it
has imparted good anti back staining results. The results were compared with normal
biofading enzymes treated with and without anti back staining agents. The dosage has to
be worked out for different denim substrates depending upon the shade and customer
requirements.