In the textile industry, a massive amount of surfactants are used for various processes. Apart from lowering the solution’s surface tension, these surfactants are used as antistatic, untangling, and softening agents in different textile manufacturing processes such as scouring, lubrication, dyeing, and finishing. Textile surfactants contain both water-loving (hydrophilic) and water-hating (hydrophobic) parts. Textile surfactants are segmented into anionic, cationic, non-ionic, and amphoteric surfactants based on the hydrophilic part.
Conventional synthetic dispersants have extensively been used in various textile processes due to their easy availability and cost-effectiveness. Nonetheless, researchers are trying to explore ecofriendly dispersants such as biosurfactants as substituents to synthetic surfactants due to environmental concerns. Recently, researchers have used crude biosurfactant in disperse dyeing of polyester fabrics.
The biosurfactant dyed polyester fabric was compared with conventional ones such as Triton X‐100, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide “CTAB” and sodium dodecyl sulfate ‘SDS.’ It was observed that the fabric specimen dyed at 1.5% dye concentration on the weight of the fabric (o.w.f.) in the presence of CFCB (containing biosurfactant above‐CMC) resulted in excellent tensile and colorfastness properties. The SEM analysis indicated that the dyeing done in the presence of biosurfactant was safer. It did not damage the fabric surface as observed in synthetic dispersants; moreover, the dyed fabric’s mechanical and color characteristics were also in the acceptable range.
