Application of Rare Earth Marking on Anti-counterfeiting Waterless/Less-Water Dyeing Technology

Compared with traditional water-based dyeing, non-aqueous medium dyeing technology has been paid more and more attention in the textile dyeing industry because of its advantages of saving water and chemicals. In order to distinguish and identify water bath dyeing products and non-aqueous medium dyeing products, a traceability technology method for non-aqueous medium dyeing products was established with rare earth elements. First, traceable materials for two typical fibers, polyester and cotton, were selected from five rare earth elements: La, Ce, Nd, Eu, and Sm. Rare earth elements were added to mark products during the non-aqueous dyeing process. Then the rare earth elements content of marked products was detected by inductively coupled plasma–optical emission spectrometry, which was used to identify non-aqueous media products. The influence of this traceability method on the basic properties of dyed fabrics was studied. Compared with traditional anti-counterfeiting technologies such as label anti-counterfeiting and query label anti-counterfeiting, the method of inductively coupled plasma–optical emission spectrometry has a low method detection limit in the range of 0.0204–0.036 mg/kg, and a good relative standard deviation values in the range of 0.69–2.43%. The content of rare earth elements in dyed fabrics was detected by inductively coupled plasma–optical emission spectrometry at 6–7 mg/kg when 10 mg/kg of rare earth elements were employed during dyeing. Therefore, a detection and certification method for non-aqueous dyeing products has been established, which is of great significance to the anti-counterfeiting traceability of non-aqueous medium dyeing technology.