Enzyme‐catalyzed hydrolysis of poly(ethylene terephthalate) cyclic trimer

Oligoesters present in poly(ethylene terephthalate) fibers are commonly extracted from the fiber during processing, such as aqueous‐based dyeing. Aqueous, insoluble oligoesters, particularly cyclic trimers that precipitate on processing machinery and on the fiber surface are difficult to remove under benign conditions. Reported is a new method for the efficient removal of cyclic trimer by enzyme‐catalyzed hydrolysis. Almost complete hydrolysis of trimer was accomplished at pH 8 and 60°C. Effects of time, agitation, surfactant, and enzyme and trimer concentrations on the efficiency of hydrolysis are reported. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 89: 2545–2552, 2003     

Photoinitiated surface grafting of synthetic fibers,IV. Applications of textile dyes onto surface-photografted synthetic fibers

High-strength polyethylene (HSPE), polypropylene (PP), poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET), and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) textile yarns have been surface-photografted with various functional monomers, such as acrylic acid (AA), acrylamide (AM), glycidyl acrylate (GA) and 4-vinyl pyridine (VP), by means of the continuous presoaking process developed. The dyeing of these surface-modified yarns with various textile dyes has been investigated. In general, considerable improvements of dyeability have been observed. The dye adsorption of the surface-photografted fibers is influenced by many factors, such as type of fiber, amount and properties of the functional monomer grafted on the surface of the fibers, type of textile dye, etc. The fibers surface-grafted with a monomer containing basic groups, such as acrylamide and 4-vinyl pyridine, are efficiently dyed with an acid dye. Conversely, a fiber surface-grafted with acidic functional monomer is easily dyed to deep shades with basic dyes. The dye adsorption increases monotonically with increasing grafting measured in ESCA spectra as relative intensities of relevant lines. The ungrafted HSPE, PP and PET fibers can be dyed to some extent with certain dyes. In the present work, the dye adsorption increased by 3.4 times for HSPE fiber grafted with GA and dyed with the metal complex dye IO, by 7.9 times for PP fiber grafted with AA and dyed with the basic dye MB, by 6.1 times for PET with AM and with the direct dye SL, and by about 15.3 times for PVA with VP and with the acid dye TE.