Dyeing Properties on Polylactic Acid (PLA) Fabrics by Disperse Dyes

This study optimizes a suitable dyeing method for polylactic acid (PLA) fabrics using disperse dyes. For this, disperse red 60 (DR 60), disperse blue 56 (DB 56), and disperse yellow 54 (DY 54) were used and dyed on PLA fabrics dependent of dyeing temperature and time. The fastness of PLA fabrics dyed with three disperse dyes were evaluated; in addition, dye exhaustion, color strength (K/S value), and colorimetric properties of PLA fabrics were compared with PET fabrics. The experiments indicated optimum dyeability of PLA fabrics with disperse dyes. The dyeing temperature was $90^{\circ}C$ for every dye and the dyeing time were 20 min, 60 min, and 40 min for DR 60, DB 56, DY 54, respectively. PLA fabrics had good color fastness to washing, dry cleaning fastness, hot pressing fastness, rub fastness, and perspiration fastness by DR 60, DB 56, and DY 54. The dye exhaustion of PLA fabrics were lower than PET fabrics; however, K/S values were higher than PET fabrics.