Ionic Liquids Can Significantly Improve Textile Dyeing: An Innovative Application Assuring Economic and Environmental Benefits

Owing to economic reasons, the textile dyeing industry generally employs traditional and absolutely no-eco-friendly processes: very large quantities of water are indeed required together with a large number of added chemicals which represent dramatic environmental issues. In order to improve the sustainability of the process, we have investigated the dyeing of wool, polyester, and cotton with disperse Red 13 using ionic liquids as the sole additive. The results obtained in isothermal dyeing at 95 degrees C show an outstanding effect of the ionic liquid 1-(2-hydroxyethyl)-3-methylimidazolium chloride. This ionic liquid assures efficient dyeing of polyester and wool in open vessels, in the absence of whichever auxiliary agent with total dyebath exhaustion, thus allowing in principle the recycling of the dye bath! The environmental benefits arising from the substitution of a number of usually employed auxiliary agents with only an ionic liquid are highlighted together with the economic ones. This article reports for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, dyeing processes for several kinds of fibers (cotton, wool, and polyester) employing exclusively three components: pure disperse dye, water, and an appropriate ionic liquid.