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Industrial processes in everyday life need to take into consideration environmental safety. This is the major goal of today's scientific research. Textile research is no exception. This paper illustrates a green process in which indigo is converted into its water-soluble leuco form by using a reducing agent that is ecologically friendly: 3-hydroxybutanone (C4H8O2). The effect of alkalinity and reducing temperature on the reducing power of C4H8O2 has been evaluated in the absence and presence of indigo. The dyeing quality of the modified cotton resultant of the exhaust process is studied. Cotton modification is carried out by using Denitex BC 200% in order to improve the quality of the exhaustion dyeing process. Modified cotton fibres are characterized through a morphology analysis (by using a SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis. The performances of the indigo dyeing process are evaluated by measuring the redox potentials generated in the medium with and without indigo, dyeing bath exhaustion (E(%)), and colour yield (K/S) of the coloured cotton at 660 nm, brightness index (B(%)) and dyeing fastness of both the untreated and modified cotton fabrics.

The purpose of this paper is to give compiled information on previously applied cotton fabric surface modifications. The paper covered most of the modifications done on cotton fabric to improve its properties or to add some functional properties. The paper presented mostly studied research works that brought a significant surface improvement on cotton fabric.

Different previous works on surface modifications of cotton fabrics such as pilling, wrinkle and microbial resistance, hydrophobicity, cationization, flame retardancy and UV-protection characteristics were studied and their methods of modification including the main findings are well reported in this paper.

Several modification treatments on surface modification of cotton fabrics indicated an improvement in the desired properties in which the modification is needed. For instance, the pilling tendency, wrinkling, microbial degradation and UV degradation drawbacks of cotton fabric can be overcome through different modification techniques.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, there are no compressive documents that covered all the portions presented in this review. The author tried to cover the surface modifications done to improve the main properties of cotton fabric.