Dyeing polyester

By : Dr. Ashok Athalye, Arindam Chakraborty and Vikas Shirke

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India's textile industry contributes about 14 per cent to industrial production, five per
cent to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and accounts for 17 per cent of foreign exchange
inflows. Involving over 45 million people, the textile industry is the country's second
largest employer, after agriculture.

The size of the Indian textile market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 10.1 per cent
between 2009 and 2021 (Figure 1). The Indian textile industry is set for strong growth,
buoyed both by strong domestic consumption as well as export demand. Readymade
garments were the largest contributor (39 per cent share) to the total textile and apparel
exports from India in 2012 (Figure 2). The textile sector has witnessed a spurt in
investment during the last five years. The industry attracted foreign direct investment
worth US$ 1.15 billion from April 2000 to June 2014. The government has also taken a
lot of initiative for the development of this sector.

Polyester is the most important man-made textile fibre and its production has
continuously grown over the years (Figure 4 and 5).

In the past decade, world production of polyester staple has grown on an average rate of
6.5 per cent per annum. The world situation is dominated by China, which accounted for
almost 65 per cent of the global total in 2010, and other Asian countries (together, 90
per cent). Global production of polyester staple is expected to rise by an average of 5.4
per cent per year through 2025, compared to 4.1 per cent for other fibers. World
production of polyester filament has increased by an average of 8.2 per cent per annum
during the past decade. Global filament production is expected to grow at an average
annual rate of 7.2 per cent through 2025.

Polyethylene terephthalate, commonly known as polyester, contains ester functional

group in the main chain. Textiles made up of polyester as self or in blends are
extensively used in apparel - suiting, shirting, jackets, sports-wear, work-wear, ladies
dress material and home furnishings --- and as blankets, furniture upholstery, curtains
and other products.

The colouration of textiles, be it by dyeing or printing, is an important aspect of the

production process and adds value. The specific requirements of colour shade hue and
its fastness properties are major quality parameters demanded by end users. So, the
contribution of dyestuff pigment industries in wet processing operations is enormous.
The global estimated potential of textile dyes and pigment is US$ 5 billion.

Currently, polyester occupies a major share in global use of textile substrates (Figure
6). As the textile processing and coloration industries carry out processing of a wide
variety of fibres, the dyestuffs selected are obviously from diverse classes of colorants
such as acid, metal-complex and reactive for wool and silk; reactive, direct, vat, sulphur,
napthol/base, etc for cotton and cellulosic; disperse for polyester, polyamide and
acetate; basic for acrylics; and pigments, in general, for almost all kinds of material. The
dyestuff market is mostly dominated by disperse and reactive dyes (Figure 7).

Today's lifestyle, fashion trends and concern for health and the environment have raised
the demand for colourful wear with high fastness properties. The textile industry is
facing challenges to satisfy end users' expectations on fastness specifications especially
for high wash and rub fastness in apparel and sportswear. Retailers and brands are
continuously introducing screening tests into their performance specifications to ensure
they buy appropriate products. Thus, market trends have been influential in developing
new disperse dyestuff range to meet customer demands. Keeping in mind the challenges
faced by textile processors, Atul developed Tulasteron M-XLD range of disperse dyes to
meet the most demanding retailer and brand specifications for high wet-fast outlets like
sportswear, apparel and workwear.
Its special features and benefits are:

Highest wet fastness level under severe test conditions

Excellent build-up property
Excellent reproducibility
Improved rightfirst time performance
Highly suitable for dyeing polyester/elastane blends
Suitable for dyeing of polyester microfibre with good dry/wet rubbing
fastness
Suitable for dyeing of polyester/cotton blends without intermediate
reduction clearing treatment
Reduced process costs/high productivity
Excellent laboratory to bulk reproducibility

Perfect solidity of shades

Covers wide colour spectrum in ternary shades

The fastness properties of Tulasteron M-XLD dyes are furnished in Figure 8:

Different popular shades were developed on polyester/cotton (67/33) blended woven

fabric using Tulasteron M-XLD disperse dyes/Novatic MD vat dyes following
continuous dyeing method [Pad (one bath)DryThermofixationChemical PadSteam
method] and wash fastness (ISO 105 CO6/C2) properties of these shades were
evaluated. The results are below:

Another important aspect of high wet fastness of disperse dyes depends on its behaviour
under thermal as well as thermo-migration. The thermal migration characterizes

movement of dye during post-dyeing heat treatment (like heat setting) of a polyester
substrate, resulting in the movement of disperse dyes out of polyester and their
accumulation on the fibre surface. This phenomenon is also called colour blooming.
Such presence of dye on the fibre surface limits its fastness properties, affects shade
change and causes cross-staining on the adjacent substrate in case of blends. The
specialty Tulasteron M-XLD dyes and certain high molecular weight disperse dyes are
considered to withstand thermal migration.

Thermo-migration property, on the other hand, involves movement of dyes from the
interior of polyester fibre to its surface under the influence of time (prolong storage),
temperature and humidity. Such surface accumulated dyestuffs get transferred into
processing, finishing chemicals resulting in impaired fastness properties.

In addition to deteriorating the wash, light, perspiration and rub fastness properties,
such thermo-migration of dyestuff also causes shade changes and stains adjacent
material. Generally, non-ionic processing/finishing chemicals are considered to
accentuate migration and extraction of disperse dyes from polyester fibre. However, the
extent may vary from depending on chemical characteristics. Therefore, it is usually
recommended to study effect of finishing chemicals on thermo-migration through
various test methods.

Summary

As the global consumer grows more demanding about a high level of all-round fastness,
the dyestuff industry faces a challenge to manufacture high-quality dyes and pigments.
This is one of the driving factors for their research and development activities.

The issues faced by the Indian dyestuff industry include falling margins with overcapacity, intense competition, need for innovation and demand for environmentally
friendly dyes. Need for innovation across the entire supply chain of textiles has been
identified as the key area for sustainability. The textile wet processing segment is facing
challenges in the area of substrate, machinery, dyestuff, chemicals, process, fastness and
statutory norms.
Modern lifestyles and changing needs demand a practical approach to satisfy stringent
wet and other fastness demands. Consumer awareness is certainly remarkable and the
producer's ability to translate, innovate and create has created opportunities for
profiting from growing consumer demand. The Tulasteron M-XLD range of specialty
disperse dyes is the tailor-made solution to satisfy stringent wet fastness demands of
customers globally.

Reference:

1. Tecnon OrbiChem: Polyester and Cotton Unequal Competitors; AFCOTM

2. Teli, Coloration Technology, 124 (1)
3. Ibef.org
4. En.wikipedia.org