Under the background of low-carbon economy, structural adjustment, and industrial upgrading, the cationic dyeable yarn is becoming more and more popular, because it not only avoids the problems of high energy consumption and high pollution but also promotes the development of modified polyester fibers. This article will present the cationic dyeable yarn from the following two aspects.

Replacing Acrylic Fiber

Due to the characteristics of acrylic fiber solution spinning, it is difficult and expensive to produce special-shaped fibers. But Polyester has advantages in these aspects. Atmospheric pressure cationic dyeable yarn can produce plush, blankets, and carpets. These fabrics are almost the same as the ones made of acrylic fibers in terms of the production process, fabric appearance, and hand feel. The production process of cationic yarn is almost pollution-free, and the cost is much lower. However, in ordinary polyester macromolecules, there are no functional groups, which can be combined with direct dyes, acid dyes, basic dyes, etc. It is not easy for the dye molecules to enter the interior of the fiber, which makes dyeing difficult and monotonous, and limits the application of polyester fibers.

In the copolymer of PET, isophthalic acid sulfonate is used as a modifier to obtain a cationic dyeable polymer (CDP for short). And the metal ion on the sulfonic acid group can easily exchange with the cation in the cationic dye. Using sulfonate as a modifier can also reduce the crystallinity of the polymer and increase the mobility of the molecular chain in the amorphous region, thereby achieving the purpose of improving dyeability. At the same time, the fourth monomer is added into the copolymer as a modifier, and the normal pressure cationic dyeable polyester (ECDP for short) can be prepared so that it can be dyed with cationic dyes under normal pressure. Atmospheric cationic dye polyester fibers are not only equivalent to dry-spun acrylic fibers in terms of physical indicators, texture, hand feeling, and processing methods, but also have dyeing effects such as black dyeing and bright dyeing. After years of experiment and production practice, Hubei Decon provides CDP and ECDP chips, which are the raw material of cationic dyeable yarn.

Huge Market Demand

At present, ordinary polyester produced by many domestic companies is mostly used in local low-grade products. With the increasing production capacity of conventional products, the demand has gradually become saturated, and the market competition has become increasingly fierce.

Entering this century, many domestic enterprises use intermittent polyester devices to produce polyester chips and blend them with waste bottle chips to produce normal-pressure cationic dyeable polyester staple fibers (commonly known as Bosilun). Bosilun fiber is then used for knitted products, blankets, and plush, which breaks the previous pattern of using 100% acrylic staple fiber. But the final products made of Bosilun have many problems in processing and dyeing. Then the cationic yarn made of CDP/ECDP chip is developed. Using atmospheric pressure cationic dyeable polyester fiber as raw material can reduce the production cost of wool textile products and revitalize the wool textile product industry that has been in the doldrums for a long time.

At present, ECDP and high shrinkage ECDP have been successfully applied to the production of artificial furs that has a good fluffy feeling, dyeing ability, fabric brightness, and fiber stiffness. In particular, the application of high-shrinkage ECDP solves the problem of producing acrylic fibers with the high-shrinkage property.