The effect of degree of grafting (GY) and degree of dye uptake on the thermal stability of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fabric was studied using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and X-ray diffraction analysis (XDA). TGA showed that the degradation process was composed of three overlapping stages. The first and second stages were studied in detail. Methacrylic acid (MAA)-grafted PET fabric was dyed using Rhodamine Red (RR) and Astrazonrot Violet (AV) basic dyes. It was found that grafting deteriorated the thermal stability of both stages. The first stage showed the formation of two new steps at low and high temperatures. Both steps are heating rate and graft yield dependent. The deteriorating effect of grafting was followed by the changes in the kinetic parameters. AV dyeing of grafted samples accelerated the degradation of both stages whereas RR dyeing improved the thermal stability to reach that of ungrafted fabric. XDA showed that the crystalline nature of AV dye stuff is responsible for the rapid degradation in both stages via the introduction of highly incompatible crystalline phase in the polymer back bone, which resulted in the formation of internal stresses that enhanced the degradation process. DSC measurements supported TGA results. The improvement in the thermal stability by RR dyeing is attributed to the amorphous nature and the high thermal stability of the RR dye stuff. (c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.