Sustainable Natural Printing of Cotton Fabric Without Metal-Based Mordant

Abstract

Endeavors on scoured and bleached cotton knit fabric to print with natural dyes and natural thickeners were made avoiding the use of detrimental metal-based mordanting agents. Three different natural dye sources (Rose flower-Rosa indica, Teak leaf-Tectona grandis and Tamarind-Tamarindus indica seed husk) extracted in aqueous medium were applied on 100% cotton knit fabric with three different thickeners prepared from the powder of Guar gum-Cyamopsis tetragonoloba, mango seed-Mangifera indica and tamarind seed-Tamarindus indicaon. The printed samples exhibited excellent wash fastness with grading 4–5 for all printed samples, light fastness 7 for tamarind seed husk and tamarind seed, rose flower and tamarind seed printed fabrics and rubbing fastness 4–5 for all printed fabrics. Dye-fiber bond formation was confirmed by FTIR, which revealed phenomena of strong covalent bond between dye and fiber molecules. Environmental impact assessments, chemical oxygen demand (COD) of 0–158 mg/L and total suspended solid (TSS) of 1–55 mg/L indicated that the wastewater generated was safe to discharge to the environment without treatment. Other essential features, determination of K/S value, CIE lab data and durability of printing paste demonstrated successful application of natural dyes and thickeners for printing cotton fabric.

Keywords

• sustainable
• natural printing
• mordant
• metal
• cotton fabric
• natural thickener