Supercritical CO2-assisted dyeing and functionalization of polymeric materials: A review of recent advances (2015–2020)

Abstract In the last decades, the textile industry has shown an ever-increasing interest in supercritical fluid technology, due to the many advantages that using supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) could bring over conventional processing with water. The most highlighted improvements are the enhance of transport properties and the much easier solvent recovery, making the process faster, more cost-effective, and environmentally friendly. Although dyeing was the first area in which this technology was studied and applied in textile processing, the incorporation of active compounds for the functionalization of these materials has recently become of great interest, leading to a growing number of innovative investigations reported in the literature in the last years. In this review, the main developments and advances in the field of supercritical dyeing and functionalization of textiles in the years 2015–2020, are presented. Furthermore, scCO2-polymer-compound interactions, their dependence on the operation conditions, and their effects on process efficiency are discussed. Novel textile substrates and dyes, as well as equipment innovations, are also reviewed.