Dye Fed Silkworms to Produce Naturally Coloured Silk Cocoons

ABSTRACT

Silk has been one of such luxuries we enjoy by sacrificing the insects that produce it for our benefit. As if this savagery wasn’t enough our dyeing of this silk has used up unfathomable water and caused its pollution to a considerable degree. In spite of all these inimical consequences to silk production, it still holds a place in the journey to sustainability because of its strength, durability and more of all its sentimental value to humans that discourage the use and throw frame of mind associated with clothing which has developed in the awake of this fast fashion epoch. In this context we discuss a method to make silk production more economical and less polluting and waste generating. The silkworms are fed special diets with dyes incorporated into it so that their silk glands take u these dyes and naturally spin colored cocoons. This abolishes the repercussions of toxic dye effluents generated during traditional dyeing process. Environment-friendly method to dye silk can be efficient by finding the right kind of dye that has positive partition coefficients (not very high), low isoelectric point, molecular weights less than 400 g/mol, and highly lipophilic.

摘要

丝绸一直是我们享受的奢侈品之一,为了我们的利益牺牲了生产丝绸的昆虫. 似乎这种野蛮还不够,我们对这种丝绸的染色已经消耗了深不可测的水,造成了相当程度的污染. 尽管对丝绸生产产生了所有这些不利的后果,但它仍然在可持续发展的道路上占有一席之地,因为它的力量,耐用性,更重要的是它对人类的情感价值,阻止了人们使用和抛弃在这个快速时尚时代的觉醒中发展起来的与服装相关的思维方式. 在这方面,我们讨论了一种方法,使丝绸生产更经济,减少污染和废物产生. 蚕被喂食含有染料的特殊食物,这样它们的蚕丝腺体就会吸收这些染料,自然地纺出彩色的茧. 这就消除了传统染色过程中产生的有毒染料废水的影响. 通过寻找合适的正分配系数（不太高),低等电点,分子量小于400g/mol,高亲脂性的染料,可以有效地对蚕丝进行环境友好的染色.

KEYWORDS:

• Silk
• silkworms
• cocoons
• dyeing
• fashion
• sustainability

关键词:

• 丝绸
• 蚕
• 茧
• 染色
• 时尚
• 持续性