The increasing use of functional aramids in a wide array of applications and the inert nature of aramids against conventional dye and print methods requires developing new dyeing methods. This study aims to use environmentally friendly method with a cationic dye as an alternative for dyeing para-aramid fabrics. Experiments used a multi-factorial design with functions of pretreatment, dye solvent (water and/or glycerol) and auxiliary chemical additives (swelling agent and surfactant) and a sequential experimentation methodology. The most effective dyeing procedures involved the following steps: (i) pretreatments of the fabrics with soybean oil and nonthermal plasma (NTP), (ii) using water at T = 100 °C as the dye solvent, and (iii) omitting other chemical additives. With a commercial cationic dye, these conditions achieved a color strength in K/S value of 2.28, compared to ~1 for untreated samples. FTIR analysis revealed that a functional network formed on the fibers and yarns of the fabrics by chemical reactions of excited plasma species with double bonds in the soybean oil molecules was responsible for significantly improving the color strength. These results extend the potential uses of a renewable material (soybean oil) and an environmentally friendly technology (NTP) to improve the dyeing of para-aramid textiles and reduce the use of harsh dye chemicals.
Keywords: cationic dye; glycerol; nonthermal plasma; para-aramid textiles; soybean oil.