Eco-friendly acid dyeing of silk and wool fabrics using Acid Violet 49 dye

The effluent load from textile industries has forced traders and industrialists to use sustainable tools that not only save energy, money, and labor but also make the process cleaner. The purpose of this study is to improve the dyeing of proteinous fabrics using Acid Violet 49 dye under microwave radiation. Aqueous and acidic dye solutions were prepared and treated with MW radiations for up to 10 min. MW treated and untreated dye solutions were used to color treated and untreated fabrics to observe color yield. It has been found that dyeing of irradiated silk at 65 °C for 35 min, using 55 mL of irradiated dye solution containing 1 g/100 mL salt, has given excellent results. Whereas good color characteristics are obtained if irradiated wool fabric is dyed at 85 °C for 55 min, using 55 mL irradiated dye solution using 1 g/100 mL salt. Physicochemical analysis reveals that MW rays have physically modified the fabric without altering its chemistry. ISO standard methods employed for colorfastness show that under optimal conditions, the color developed is fast; statistical analysis shows that the dyeing process has given significant results. It is concluded that MW rays have excellent potential to improve acidic dyeing of proteinous fabric under mild conditions which show that the utilization of MW rays is a cost-, time-, and energy-effective process.