Sustainable approach for colouration of acrylic fibres using waste alpaca fibres

The present work describes a chemical-free biocompatible and natural pigment based dyeing
technique to colour acrylic fibres. The mechanically milled alpaca powders were directly
applied to the polyacrylonitrile (PAN) dope solution in different weight ratios of alpaca: PAN
(10:90, 20:80, and 30:70). The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy showed that all the
coloured fibres possess functional groups of both alpaca and polyacrylonitrile. Furthermore,
the colour strength was increased gradually with the increment of alpaca content. These results
reveal a potential new pathway for chemical-free colouration of fibres with natural colourant.