EFFECT OF NONIONIC SURFACTANT ON POLYESTER PRINTING BY SUPER HEAT STEAMING

It is known that nonionic surfactant is an effective dyeing accelerator in polyester printing by super heat steaming. In this paper, 4 mol ethylene oxide addition of orthophenyl phenol (OPP-(EO)4) was used as a model compound of dyeing accelerator, and the dyeing behavior was compared with those of OPP and urea. OPP-(EO)4 was more effective than urea to accelerate the polyester printing by super heat steaming, however, it was quite ineffective in aqueous dyeing. An addition of OPP-(EO)4 in dyeing solution was found to decrease the dyeing properties, because the partition coeffi-cient decreased by the increase of the solubility of dye.Furthermore, change of the fine structure of polyester fiber treated with OPP-(EO)4 and OPP was investigated by X-ray diffractometry and dynamic viscoelastic measurement. The fine structure of the fiber was changed markedly by OPP treatment. On the contrary, the change was scarcely observed by OPP-(EO)4.From these results, the effect of OPP-(EO)4 on the dyeing improvement in polyester printing can be considered to increase the dye solubilization and the dye transfer in printing paste during super heat steaming.