Sustainable and Hydrolysis-Free Dyeing Process for Polylactic Acid Using Nonaqueous Medium

Abstract

A sustainable and hydrolysis-free dyeing process was developed for polylactic acid (PLA) fibers. PLA is a biobased alternative to petroleum based polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is the most widely used textile fiber. However, the hydrolytic degradation of PLA fibers under the conventional aqueous dyeing conditions limited its applications in textile industry. A new solvent dyeing process was developed using liquid paraffin as a nonaqueous dyeing medium. High quality dyed PLA fabrics were obtained without consuming water and auxiliaries. Minimal strength loss of dyed fibers was achieved by postheat setting treatment. The 3R principle (reduce, reuse, and recycle) was implemented to ensure the environmental friendliness of solvent dyeing process. The result of a 9-cycle reuse sequence demonstrated excellent color consistency of dyed PLA fabrics. The sustainability of our new dyeing process was quantified in the framework of environmental-health-social impact. The dyeing process sustainability index indicated that the solvent dyeing process was preferred over the aqueous dyeing. The method developed in the present work enabled the practical applications of PLA as textile fibers. It represented an important step toward a sustainable textile industry.

Application of the Box–Behnken design for the production of soluble curcumin: Skimmed milk powder inclusion complex for improving the treatment of colorectal cancer

“…Figure 2b shows that the cloth stained in the solution was colorless for pure CMN, characteristic yellow (SMP), yellow (PVP), and pale yellow color (MNT). in water increased the most after incorporation in this complex (Xu et al, 2015).…”

Enhanced crystallization rate and mechanical properties of poly(l‐lactic acid) by stereocomplexation with four‐armed poly(ϵ‐caprolactone)‐block‐poly(d‐lactic acid) diblock copolymer

“…Growing concerns over environmental problems in recent years have aroused great interest in bio‐based and biodegradable polyesters . Poly(lactic acid) (PLA), which is produced from renewable resources, has been applied in various fields, such as packaging, textile and biomedical applications . Despite its plentiful resources and degradable properties, several obvious defects (e.g.…”

Molecular surface area based predictive models for the adsorption and diffusion of disperse dyes in polylactic acid matrix

“…PLA fibers have been successfully dyed with disperse dyes in water [5,6,17], supercritical carbon oxide (ScCO 2 ) [18,19] and organic solvents [20]. The present work focused on the solvent dyeing of PLA.…”

“…Traditional aqueous dyeing results in the strength loss of fibers during the dyeing process due to the hydrolysis of PLA. Solvent dyeing technique is able to alleviate the degradation problem of PLA fabrics [20]. ScCO 2 dyeing requires expensive high pressure equipment.…”