Colouration of polymeric electrospun nanofibrous mats - a mini review

Since its evolution, polymeric nanofibres made with electrospinning emerged to have commercial success for various technical/industrial applications such as filtration, cold separation, biosensing, healing and functional reinforcement in composites. In the start of twenty-first century, the electrospun nanofibres found their way for use as a laminate in apparel and furnishing textiles where aesthetics play one of the basic roles. Therefore, colouration of electrospun nanofibres grabbed attention of scientists and experts. As a result, many studies have appeared on colouration of electrospun nanofibrous mats over the recent decade. The present article summarizes a review on the fundamentals and methods, reported so far, of making coloured electrospun nanofibres of various polymers. The review focuses on preparing various polymeric nanofibrous mats with polymer solution via electrospinning as well as principle colouration techniques, i.e. conventional methods such as batchwise and pad dyeings, using ultrasonic energy (an emerging processing technology), dope dyeing and printing.