TREATMENT OF TEXTILES IN CO_2 -POTENTIALITIES AND LIMITATIONS

摘要

While dyeing of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PETP) fibres in supercritical carbon dioxide is now on its way to be transferred into the textile finishing industry to check the economic efficiency and practicability in an upscaled plant, dyeing of natural fibres such as cotton is still a problem. Within the paper an overview is given about the international state-of-the-art of dyeing technical (aramides, polyolefin fibres, polybenzimidazole and others) and natural fibres (wool, viscose, silk) in carbon dioxide. The potentialities and limitations are discussed regarding the dyes and fibre structure and polarity but also methods are presented to improve the dye uptake of these fibres in carbon dioxide. Moreover a new field of application in our institute is the disinfection and sterilization of textiles for medical use in CO_2. While pure CO_2 has limited disinfecting properties, good results are obtained by adding very small amounts of co-solvents such as water and alcohol or CO_2-soluble disinfecting agents. The results are compared with conventional technologies such as water/alcohol- mixtures, peracetic acid and disinfecting agents in water.