engleski

The process sustainability for polyester fabric hydrolysis

Due to high crystallinity of poly(ethylene- terephthalate) (PET) fibres, PET fabric has to be modified in order to increase the sorption properties and fabric comfort, to reduce static electricity and improve aesthetics. Conventionally, the alkaline hydrolysis at high temperature is performed for that purpose. Since that is not environmentally friendly process, more sustainable processes were investigated in this paper. The lower temperature and process time as well as lipase enzyme application were researched. The hydrolysis was performed with alkali at 60 and 100 °C, with and without accelerator, and with enzymes. The hydrolysis effects were evaluated by standard methods. Fabric weight loss, breaking force, elongation, whiteness degree and yellowing index were determined. The characterization of modified PET fabric surface was performed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with magnification 1000x. It has been proven that hydrolysis can be performed in more sustainable process – at 60 °C for shorter time or with eco- friendly enzyme.

PET fabric, polyester, hydrolysis, enzymes, low temperature

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