Dyes

Dyes

Dye is a Colored Substance that has an accord with a substrate to which it is being applied. This is generally applied in a liquid solution and may require acid to improve its fastness on the fiber, these are usually soluble in water.

Both pigments and dyes are colored because they absorb only a few wavelengths of visible light, pigments are insoluble, there are two important types one is Natural and another one is synthetic. The first synthetic one Mauveine as discovered by William Henry Perkin in 1856

Natural

Natural dyes are mainly extracted from plant sources like roots, leaves, herbs, seeds, and flowers, in early days people use natural dyes to paint their clothes using common, locally available materials, plant-based ones like woad, indigo, saffron, and madder were raised commercially and these are important trading goods  in the economies of Asian and European countries.

Synthetic

Synthetic ones are man-made and these are made by using petroleum products and in sometimes a combination of mineral-derived components, many thousands of synthetic ones are being prepared till now, but people which are looking for health-conscious prefer natural dyes than synthetic ones because of the harmful substances present in its preparation.

Types

According to their solubility and chemical properties, these are classified into many types

Acid ones, Basic ones, Vat ones, Mordant, Reactive ones, Disperse, and food.

Acid: these are water-soluble anionic dyes which are applied to fiber like silk, wool, nylon.

Basic: these are water-soluble cationic ones, these dyes are used in coloration of paper. acetic acid is added to the dye bath.

Mordant: this requires acid to improve its fastness when it is applied to the cloth fabric, against water, light.

Vat: these are essentially insoluble in water and incapable of dyeing fibers directly.

Reactive: these are capable of directly reacting with the fiber substrate.