<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in -0.7pt 0.0001pt 0in; text-align: justify;\"><em><span style=\"font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: \'Times New Roman\',\'serif\';\">Energy conservation in the area of textile wet processing is much more prominent than various other sections of textile manufacture. There are numerous opportunities to make wet processing efficient and thus conserve energy. Dyeing industry consumes considerable amounts of water and thermal energy &ndash; both these commodities are rapidly becoming expensive day by day. Lowering the temperature of dyeing and shortening the processing time can lead to the conservation of energy. This has been achieved by various methods, such as graft polymerization, redox system, solvent dyeing etc. Solvent assisted dyeing of various textile fibres such as cotton, wool, silk, nylon, polyester, etc. have shown improved dyeing behavior. In the present work, solvent treatment is considered as a measure to conserve energy by lowering down the dyeing temperature as well as the dyeing time. &nbsp;The solvent used for the study is acetophenone. Commercial metal complex acid dyes have been applied on the solvent pretreated silk substrates at different dyeing temperatures, ranging from room temperature to 70<sup>o</sup> C and the results compared with conventionally dyed samples, in terms of colour strength values and fastness properties of the dyed samples. The solvent treatment not only aids in reducing the dyeing time and temperature but also retains the aesthetic values associated with silk fibre.</span></em></p>
 
<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 0in; margin-right: -.7pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-left: 0in; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: \'Times New Roman\',\'serif\'; mso-fareast-font-family: \'Times New Roman\';\">Keywords:</span></strong><span style=\"font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: \'Times New Roman\',\'serif\'; mso-fareast-font-family: \'Times New Roman\';\"> acetophenone, silk, metal-complex dyes, fastness characteristics, energy conservation&nbsp;</span></p>