Yukio Onohara

Deodorant performance of titanium dioxide-added acrylic/cellulose diacetate blended fibers

To obtain acrylic fiber with excellent deodorant performance, the effects of titanium dioxide photocatalyst were examined. When titanium dioxide was added to acrylonitrile copolymer and wet spun, the resulting fiber displayed insufficient photocatalytic activity. The acrylonitrile copolymer was then mixed with 30 wt% cellulose diacetate and wet spun. A very finely fibrillated structure resulted, and the official moisture regain of the blend fiber doubled, from 2.03% to 4.03%. While applying ultraviolet (UV) light to these blended fibers, the dye decomposition effect of the fibers was examined. When titanium dioxide was then added, significant dye decomposition ability appeared. When the blend fiber containing cellulose diacetate was saponified by alkali, the official moisture regain increased by 2.5–2.8%, and dye decomposition ability improved. While applying UV light to these acrylic-based fibers, the deodorant ability against ammonia gas was also examined. Fibers with cellulose diacetate deodorized ammonia well within six hours. For the saponified blend fiber with 5.0 wt% titanium dioxide, the odor residual rate decreased to 3.0% within 1 hour. Clearly, the addition of diacetate and subsequent alkali saponification produced acrylic-based fiber with excellent deodorant performance.