ABSTRACT FEI, XIUZHU. Decolorization of Dyed Polyester
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ABSTRACT FEI, XIUZHU. Decolorization of Dyed Polyester Fabrics using Sodium Formaldehyde Sulfoxylate. (Under the direction of Dr. David Hinks and Dr. Harold S. Freeman). Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fiber is now the largest single fiber type within global textile production, taking over from cotton. In view of environmental stewardship, an effective approach to recycling colored PET fabrics has drawn wide attention. A key step in the recycling process is dye removal. Disperse dyes are used to dye PET fibers and designed to be durable inside the fiber. In addition, disperse dyes are hydrophobic and will not be substantially extracted with water as the only solvent. In this work, the organic solvent, acetone, was used in combination with water to remove disperse dyes from the PET, and sodium formaldehyde sulfoxylate (SFS) was employed to decolorize the dye. This agent was found effective for decolorizing Disperse Yellow 42, Yellow 86, Blue 56 and Blue 60 in acetone/water solutions and the process was extended to decolorization of dyed PET. An optimized combination of treatment time (30 min), water to acetone ratio (1:2), SFS concentration (10g/L), temperature (100 ˚C), and liquor ratio (1:50) was found to give sufficient color removal for a broad range of disperse dyes. Reuse of the water/acetone medium for five times was achieved for decolorization of Disperse Yellow 42 but could not be achieved for Disperse Blue 56. Fabric strength assessments were also investigated. It was found that SFS decolorization has no adverse influence on PET strength, as judged by viscosity measurements. © Copyright 2015 Xiuzhu Fei All Rights Reserved Decolorization of Dyed Polyester Fabrics using Sodium Formaldehyde Sulfoxylate by Xiuzhu Fei A thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Textile Chemistry Raleigh, North Carolina 2015 APPROVED BY: _______________________________ _______________________________ Dr. David Hinks Dr. Harold S. Freeman Committee Co-Chair Committee Co-Chair _______________________________ Dr. Kristin Thoney-Barletta DEDICATION I dedicate my thesis work to my parents and sister. A special feeling of gratitude to my loving parents, Mengqiao Fei and Yuchai Zhang who give me endless support and encouragement. My sister Xiudong Fei has never left my side and is very special. ii BIOGRAPHY Xiuzhu Fei was born on November 30th, 1991 in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province of China. She is the second daughter of Mengqiao Fei and Yuchai Zhang. She was graduated from Ronghuai Private School in June, 2009, and became a student in Jiangnan University majoring Dyeing and Finishing Engineering. After she obtained her bachelor degree in 2013, she was enrolled in North Carolina State University to pursue her Masters degree in Textile Chemistry in the College of Textiles. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First of all, sincere appreciation goes to Dr. David Hinks and Dr. Harold S. Freeman for their guidance and support throughout my educational experience and research work. I am very grateful for every mark on my two draft thesis editions from Dr. Freeman, and I will keep those pages forever. I am also very thankful to Dr. Kristin Thoney-Barletta for kindly being a member of my graduate committee. Besides, I want to give my special thanks to Jeffrey Krauss, who always provided me chemicals I needed, Judy Elson and Birgit Andersen for their help with chemistry lab and analytical lab. I appreciate all the help from teachers, classmates, staff and my dear friends, who have made my academic life so meaningful. Finally, I want to say ‘thank you’ to my boyfriend, Ju, for his encouragement and all the sweet things he did. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................. ix LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................... xi CHAPTER 1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Thesis Outline ................................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Research Objective ....................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2 Literature Review ................................................................................................. 3 2 .1 Nature of Polyethylene Terephthalate ....................................................................... 3 2.1.1 The History of PET .................................................................................................. 3 2.1.2 The Preparation of PET ........................................................................................... 4 2.1.3 The Characteristics of Polyethylene Terephthalate Fibers ...................................... 5 2.1.4 The Characteristics of Cationic Dyeable Polyester ............................................... 11 2.2 Dyes for polyester ........................................................................................................ 12 2.2.1 Disperse dyes ......................................................................................................... 12 2.2.2 Basic dyes .............................................................................................................. 26 2.3 Dye decolorization methods ....................................................................................... 27 2.3.1 Physical methods ................................................................................................... 27 2.3.2 Chemical methods .................................................................................................. 28 2.3.3 Biological methods ................................................................................................ 31 v 2.4. Sodium formaldehyde sulfoxylate ............................................................................ 32 2.4.1 Introduction to sodium formaldehyde sulfoxylate ................................................. 32 2.4.2 Reactivity of sodium formaldehyde sulfoxylate .................................................... 33 2.5 Characterization of decolorization performance ..................................................... 35 2.5.1 Whiteness Index ..................................................................................................... 35 2.5.2 Color strength......................................................................................................... 36 2.5.3 Ultraviolet-visible spectrum................................................................................... 37 2.5.4 Intrinsic viscosity and molecular weight ............................................................... 41 2.6 Research project.......................................................................................................... 44 Chapter 3 Experimental methods and procedures ............................................................ 47 3.1 Materials ...................................................................................................................... 47 3.1.1 Chemicals ............................................................................................................... 47 3.1.2 Instrumentation ...................................................................................................... 47 3.2 Dyeing experiments ..................................................................................................... 49 3.2.1 Dyeing of polyester fabrics with high volume disperse dyes ................................ 49 3.2.2 Dyeing of cationic dyeable polyester with basic dyes ........................................... 49 3.3 Preliminary decolorization experiments ................................................................... 50 3.3.1 Decolorization of dye solutions/dispersions .......................................................... 50 3.3.2 Decolorization of industrial garment fabrics and laboratory-dyed fabrics ............ 50 vi 3.4.2 Optimization by control experiments..................................................................... 51 3.4.3 Decolorization of other fabrics using optimized method ....................................... 52 3.4.4. Reuse of decolorization bath ................................................................................. 53 3.5 Measurement of decolorized fabrics ......................................................................... 53 3.5.1 Color strength......................................................................................................... 53 3.5.2 Whiteness Index ..................................................................................................... 54 3.5.3 Intrinsic viscosity and calculation of molecular weight ........................................ 54 Chapter 4 Results and discussion ........................................................................................ 55 4.1 Preliminary decolorization experiments ................................................................... 55 4.1.1 Decolorization of solutions .................................................................................... 55 4.1.2 Decolorization of commercial and laboratory-dyed fabrics .................................. 57 4.2 Optimization of experiments .....................................................................................