Structures and Basic Properties of Textile Dyes and their Impact on the Environment

In today's world, the textile industry is one of the most important sectors, both economically and in everyday life. The textile industry is one of the most important commercial sectors that require a significant amount of water and chemical ingredients for several types of processing needed during the conversion of fibres to final textile products ready for sale. Textile dyes are an important topic to discuss from both a positive and negative perspective, as dyes are an unavoidable part of colouring clothes or papers, but when they end up in the environment as a waste product from the industries mentioned above, they have a significant negative impact on the environment and the water ecosystem. Thus, it becomes necessary to handle the dyes properly and develop ways and means to remove/reuse them. However, in order to do so, one must have an in-depth understanding of the structures and properties of various dyes, as well as the treatment that should be applied. Keeping this in mind, we have discussed the basics of textile dyes in this chapter. The classifications of textile dyes, as well as their chemical structures and qualities, were also covered in this chapter. The in-depth discussion on the fundamental of textile dyes may help the workers handle dyes in a controlled way to protect the environment from the associated toxicity.

Keywords: Dyes, Toxicity, Water pollution, Ecosystem, Chromophores, Environment.