Colored cotton: Novel eco-friendly textile material for the future

Abstract

Naturally colored cotton is pigmented fibers with the color as a part of the lumen. The colored strain Gossypium hirsutum is crossed with white linted strain to produce hybrids with qualities such as fiber length, strength, and color fastness better than the color parents. As the world is moving toward pollution-free organic textiles and products, the naturally colored cotton is going to be the next buzz word in the market. This is because; the production process of naturally colored cotton skips the most polluting activity (dyeing) of the textile product manufacturing. In this work, naturally colored cotton fibers of brown shades had been cultivated from the fields of Coimbatore region, Tamil Nadu, India. After bursting, the total yield of brown color cotton is analyzed and utilized for the yarn and fabric development. The naturally colored cotton fiber had short upper half mean length, low uniformity index, low fiber strength, good fineness, low elongation (%), good uniformity, and average maturity. The colored cotton yarn had been spun using rotor spinning technology and the yarn characteristics were analyzed. Three different types of fabric were developed using weaving method and the developed fabrics were assessed for its fabric physical properties such as tearing strength, crease recovery, stiffness, air permeability, abrasion, and pilling resistance. The fastness properties like color fastness to sublimation, washing, and light, and the results were also noted and results found promising. The naturally colored cotton is a pollution-free, eco-friendly, energy-efficient, cost-effective, nontoxic, novel viable textile material which could be explored for different product developments in the future. They could be developed and applied in home textiles, casual wears, upholstery fabrics, and every possible replacement of synthetic dyed textile. Colored cotton has both unique and desirable qualities beneficial to the consumer and the environment.