Development of disperse dye polypropylene fiber and process parameter optimization Part I: development of dyeable polypropylene fiber and parameter optimization

Abstract

This study develops polyester modified polypropylene (PP) with disperse dye dyeability. The thermal properties, rheological properties, and spectral properties are used for validation and differential analysis. The optimum PP dyeable particle process uses polyester as the mixed copolymer. The melt temperature of polyester material is significantly different from PP, which may lead to a failure of the mixing process. Therefore, this study aims to develop low-melting co-polyester. Different proportions of adipic acid are used in the co-polyester molecular chain to reduce the melting point. The melting point has been controlled successfully, the thermal properties of the modified ester pellet are discussed, and the functional group is then verified by Fourier infrared spectroscopy. Afterwards, the low-melting co-polyester and PP are made into a composite through a dual-screw mixing process with PP grafting maleic anhydride compatilizer. The PP is endued with the dyeability of disperse dye through the molecular behavior of the co-polyester chain segment. The optimum process parameters of the made material are designed by using the Taguchi method, gray relational analysis, and fuzzy C means clustering algorithm, aiming at two quality characteristics: dyeing power and melt index (MI). The results show that the MI of the pure PP polymer is 35.78 g/10 min and the color strength is 100  K/S, while the MI of the PP/co-polyester is 37.63 g/10 min and the color strength is 211.20  K/S. The results suggest that the developed polymer exhibits good processing in circulation and color strength.