Photoinitiated surface grafting of synthetic fibers, III. Photoinitiated surface grafting of poly(ethylene terephthalate) fibers

Abstract Photoinitiated surface grafting of acrylic acid (AA), acrylamide (AM) and 4‐vinyl pyridine (VP) onto poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) fibers (a commercial textile yarn) has been studied using benzophenone (BP) as photoinitiator. A continuous process as previously described has been applied, which involves presoaking of the PET yarn in a solution of initiator and monomer in acetone and UV irradiation in nitrogen atmosphere. The resulting grafted polymer on the fiber surface has been analyzed by ESCA, titration of carboxy groups (grafted AA), and dye absorption. The relative ESCA intensities (RI) of O1s/C1s and N1s/C1s are used as measure for grafted AA, AM and VP, respectively, after recording the RI‐values for ungrafted fibers. For grafting with AA, the RI‐values increased from 32.8% (background) to 48.6% after 20 s irradiation time. The amount of carboxy groups measured by titration increased from 0.045 to 0.106 mmol/m 2 . Assuming an even coverage of grafted AA polymer, this means a grafted layer of 4.8 nm thickness. After grafting, the adsorption of the dye Crystal Violet (CV) from aqueous solution increased by about 3 times. With AM as monomer, the RI‐values increased from 2.6 (background) to 14.8% and the adsorption of a direct dye Sirius Lichtbordo B‐LL increased by about 6 times. With VP as grafted monomer, the RI‐values increased from about 2.6 (background) to 5.1% and the adsorption of the direct dye increased by about 4 times.