Preparation and relative properties of dope-dyed polyurethane modified by β-cyclodextrin

•An environmental friendly method to dye polyurethane was proposed.•The dope-dyed polyurethane films had good dye fastness.•The mechanical and thermal properties of composite films were improved.•The dope-dyeing solution had a pseudo-plastic non-Newtonian behavior.

In this paper, dope dyeing method was adopted in preparation of polyurethane/β-cyclodextrin/disperse orange 31 solutions. The solutions were cast into films. Characterizations of the structure and properties of films were investigated by FTIR, UV–vis spectra, mechanical test, DMA and TGA. The results revealed that the dope-dyed polyurethanes had good dye fastness, increased mechanical and thermal properties, which could be ascribed to the existence of hydrogen bonding between β-CD and polyurethane. The results of rheological measurements showed that the dope-dyeing solution had a pseudo-plastic non-Newtonian behavior and the non-Newtonian Index increased with increasing of temperature.