Advancements in Sustainable Natural Dyes for Textile Applications: A Review

Abstract

The dyeing and finishing step represents a clear hotspot in the textile supply chain as the wet processing stages require significant amounts of water, energy, and chemicals. In order to tackle environmental issues, natural dyes are gaining attention from researchers as more sustainable alternatives to synthetic ones. This review discusses the topic of natural dyes, providing a description of their main features and differences compared to synthetic dyes, and encompasses a summary of recent research in the field of natural dyes with specific reference to the following areas of sustainable innovation: extraction techniques, the preparation of substrates, the mordanting process, and the dyeing process. The literature review showed that promising new technologies and techniques have been successfully employed to improve the performance and sustainability of natural dyeing processes, but several limitations such as the poor fastness properties of natural dyes, their low affinity with textiles substrates, difficulties in the reproducibility of shades, as well as other factors such as cost-effectiveness considerations, still prevent industry from adopting natural dyes on a larger scale and will require further research in order to expand their use beyond niche applications.

Sustainable appraisal of lipstick tree seeds (Bixa orellana)-based bixin natural orange colorant for green mordanted silk fabrics and wool yarns

“…This process induced the colorant to migrate closer to the fabric's surface, establishing a robust bond between the fabric and the coloring component of the dye. 43 Bio-mordants were found to enhance the coloring and fastness characteristics of both wool yarn and silk fabric when subjected to various testing methods, including rubbing, exposure to light, and washing. This improvement is attributed to strong H-bonding and a stable dye complex, in contrast to corresponding chemical mordants.…”

Environmental Dyeing and Functionalization of Silk Fabrics with Natural Dye Extracted from Lac

“…Natural dyes not only have the advantages of environmental protection, safety, good biodegradability, and environmental compatibility, but also have certain functions (such as antibacterial, antioxidant, UV protection, etc. ), so the application of natural dyes partially replacing synthetic dyes and synthetic finishing agents has received great attention [4][5][6][7]. Many researchers have studied dyeing and functionalizing textiles using natural materials from various sources to develop high value-added textiles [8][9][10].…”