The roles of elevated temperature and carriers in the dyeing of polyester fibres using disperse dyes: Part 3 model of dye adsorption based on dye solubility

Abstract This review concerns the application of disperse dyes to poly(ethylene terephthalate) fibres using aqueous immersion dyeing processes and the roles of both elevated dyeing temperatures and carriers in the disperse dye/polyester fibre and disperse dye/carrier/polyester fibre dyeing systems, respectively. In this part of the paper, a mechanistic model of the disperse dye adsorption process is presented that is based on the role of dye solubility in disperse dye‐PET fibre substantivity. It is shown that the dye solubility model of disperse dye adsorption, which can be articulated using a simple mathematical approach, is able to account for the reasons why elevated dyeing temperatures are utilised in HT dyeing processes, and also why dyeing accelerants enable dyeing to be achieved using lower temperatures of ~100°C.