Recent advances in the surface modification strategies to improve functional finishing of cotton with natural colourants-A review

Cotton-based textiles with comfort, softness, and warmth are attracting the attention of academicians, scientists, and industrialists for use in the medical, defence, sports, and apparel industries. On the other hand, cotton has some inherent limitations when used in natural dyeing technology, including weak dye interactions, lower dye uptakes, and low colour fastness properties. To overcome these drawbacks, the application of green surface modification strategies has received much attention in recent times. Before dyeing with natural dyes, surface modifications of cotton fabric include mordanting, cationization, plasma, gamma, UV irradiation, microwave, ultrasonics, and bio-enzyme treatments. The surface modification is an efficient approach to impart wettability, dyeability, printability, colour fastness, and other functionalities to any textile substrate. In this regard, the primary purpose of this perspective is to provide a comprehensive summary of recent research findings on cotton modifications in the context of progress towards enhancing the natural dyeing performances in terms of colourimetric, fastness and other functional properties. The review highlights current challenges and concludes with an outlook on future research directions in cotton research dyeing and functional finishing.

Automated summary

Cotton-based textiles have attracted attention in various industries due to their comfort, softness, and warmth. However, there are inherent limitations in using cotton in natural dyeing technology. The application of green surface modification strategies has been regarded as an important approach to overcome these limitations.