Enzymatic coloration of wool fabrics and its comparison with conventional dyeing

The search for a more ecological alternative to dyeing processes, which is the most polluting textile process, has become one of the most studied topics today. In this respect, enzymatic colouring with the use of laccases offer important opportunities, but studies on enzymatic colouring are still very limited. However, in order for enzymatic dyeing to find industrial‐scale use, the colour variety must be wide. Within the scope of this study, it is an important output that this study has brought to the literature, that the variety of colours that have been obtained in the literature in enzymatic dyeing has been increased so far by working with a wide variety of precursors and their mixtures, including those that have not been tested on wool before. At the same time, the reaction mechanism of the enzymatic dye synthesis and the chemical structures of the dyes were elucidated by Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy. Beyond that, as it is known, when a new dyeing process is developed, its technical, economic and ecological advantages and disadvantages compared to the currently accepted conventional dyeing should be revealed. In this study, the colours obtained by enzymatic dyeing were matched with 1:2 metal complex dyes and then two fabrics dyed with the same colour, one enzymatic and the other with conventional method, were compared in terms of technical (colour, fastness), economic (water, energy and chemical consumption) and ecological (biological oxygen demand of wastewater, chemical oxygen demand, etc.) aspects.