Dyes for man-made fibres
The first man-made fibre to achieve commercial significance was viscose
rayon, in the early 1900s. This is chemically similar to cotton (in other
words it is a cellulosic fibre) and so the dyes already available for
cotton were used on viscose rayon. At the time these were mainly direct,
vat, azoic and sulphur dyes, but since the 1960s fibre-reactive dyes have
come to be widely used on all cellulosic fibres.
In the 1930s, when acetate rayon appeared, the existing dyes were not very suitable, with the notable exception of the natural dye logwood black, which was already being used on silk and wool. A new class of dyes eventually to be called disperse dyes, was developed which allowed a full range of shades to be successfully applied to acetate rayon.
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