Study on differences of reaction behavior of phenolic hydroxyl groups with vinyl sulfone reactive dyes and monochlorotriazine reactive dyes

Using p-methylphenol as a model compound for phenolic hydroxyl groups on silk fibroin, the reaction kinetics of two typical of reactive dyes including vinyl sulfone reactive dyes and monochlorotriazine reactive dyes with phenolic hydroxyl groups were studied by reverse phase ion-pair high-performance liquid chromatography. The results showed that, the reaction rates of monochlorotriazine reactive dyes with phenolic hydroxyl groups were by far faster than those of vinyl sulfone reactive dyes, attributed to the stability of resultants from the former. The optimum reaction conditions for phenolic hydroxyl groups with vinyl sulfone reactive dyes and monochlorotriazine reactive dyes were at 50–70 °C and pH=8–9 for the former, and at 85–95 °C and pH=8–9 for the latter. The methods and results in this paper would help to deeply study the reaction mechanisms of reactive dyes with silk fibroin.