Properties and Applications of Organic Acids in Textiles Dyeing and Finishing Industries

Organic acids, commonly known as “polycarboxylic acids”, having different numbers of functional groups, as green, sustainable, bio-compatible, environment-friendly, inexpensive, efficient, and safe chemicals have found extensive applications in different industries, more especially in textile industry. Polycarboxylic acids have been used in various parts of textile industry in applications such as cross-linking and enhancement of dimensional stability of polymeric materials and fibers, binding/cross-linking enhancer for chemicals, polymers and nano-materials, antimicrobial finishing, multifunctional auxiliaries in dyeing and finishing processes of textiles, bio-mordant, antioxidant for improvement of light fastness and life time of textiles, etc. The aim of this review paper is to examine the latest advancements on the use of organic acids in development of textile materials. Hence, at first, properties and characteristics of organic acids, extensively used in textile industry, are described. Then, the latest developments using organic acids in various parts of textile industry are reviewed and the results are compared with those of conventional methods in terms of superiority and inferiority of each method.