Abstract
Acid compounds, which are widely used in industry, are colorless and have difficulty in detecting when leaked by accident. In order to solve this problem, several researches on acid gas detection have been carried out, but there have been few studies on acid liquid (or solvent) detection with chemosensors. A chemosensor using halochromic dye can provide a simple and easy detecting method by exhibiting different color when it is exposed by acid liquid. In this study, bromophenol blue was selected as a pH-indicating dye for detecting acid liquid. Nylon 66 woven fabric was dyed with bromophenol blue and dyeing properties were investigated. pH sensing property was also investigated by dipping the dyed nylon fabric in acidic solution. At pH 2, bromophenol blue in aqueous solution showed maximum absorption at 437 nm with yellow color while, at the pH above 5, maximum absorption was changed to 591 nm with blue color. Bromophenol blue showed good color yield (K/S) on nylon 66 and dyeing property was dependent on dyeing pH as well as dye concentration. When the dyed sample was immersed at pH 2.5-4.0 acidic solution, its original blue color was maintained. However, its color markedly turned to green and yellow when immersed at pH 2.0 and 1.5 solution, respectively. Wash and water fastness of the dyed fabric was moderate to very good. Fixing agent treatment only resulted in adverse effects such as wide pH range for color changing and poor fastness properties.