Vol. 10, Special Issue 12 (2021)

Author(s):
Vandana Bhandari, Saroj Yadav and Neelam M Rose

Abstract:
The revitalization of interest in green and sustainable materials and processes in textile dyeing is rising due to the increasing concern about environmental pollution in all spheres of life caused by the petrochemical based products and dyes. Natural dyes lack in shade reproducibility and fastness properties hence, mordants are required for better dye fixation of natural dyes on the textile substrate. The unique property of nanoparticles of higher surface to area ratio and more surface energy to react with the substrate can serve the purpose of mordant to enhance the dye uptake of natural dyes on the fabrics and thereby can replace the heavy metallic mordants. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to assess the effect of different nanoparticle treatments on dyeability of cotton fabris. Three different metallic nanoparticles with two natural dyes were explored to ascertain the effect of nano treatment on dye uptake of cotton fabric. Nano treatments for cotton fabric was optimized for different process parameters viz. treatment stage, nanoparticle concentration, treatment pH, time, temperature and M:L ratio of treatment bath on the basis of maximum dye absorption (%) and colour properties of treated dyed fabrics. The nanoparticle treatment was applied to scoured cotton and wool fabrics using optimized concentrations and conditions and dyed simultaneously with selected natural dyes through exhaust method in IR beaker dyeing machine. Nanoparticle treatments along with natural dyeing of cotton fabric demonstrated enhanced dye uptake and colour properties of nanotreated dyed fabrics. Hence, use of metallic nanoparticles in small amount can be successfully employed as viable approach to replace the conventional heavy metal based mordants used in large quantity for textile dyeing with natural dyes.