Evaluation of the Sorption Phenomena Mechanism of Polyacrylonitrile Fibres for Selected Dyes in the Aspect of Structural Changes Resulting from Thermal Stabilisation Processes

Abstract

The aim of the research was to analyse the influence of the initial heat treatment of polyacrylonitrile fibres on their sorption properties in relation to selected basic and disperse dyes, in order to select the dyeing variants most beneficial from the point of view of increasing the sorption capacity of commonly used dyes and improving the dyeing process. Research was carried out on a fibre produced on an industrial scale, using dyes of basic application importance, which differ in the diffusion properties of the molecules and the mechanism of binding with the fibre material. Thermal treatment of the fibre was carried out in various media (air, water, steam), with various variants of the temperature and its duration, i.e. under the conditions commonly used in fibre preprocessing processes and their “improvement”. During the research, several different measurement methods were used to assess changes in the molecular and supramolecular structure of the fibre material: the infrared absorption spectroscopy method, the critical fibre dissolution measurement method, the densitometric method, and the interferential polarisation microscopy method. Fibre sorption changes resulting from the modification of the structure of the fibre under the influence of thermal treatment were analysed from the point of view of improving the efficiency of dye use and shortening the dyeing time based on commonly accepted values of the sorption index Cb and kinetic sorption index: t0.5 for basic dyes and t0.7 for disperse dyes.