The graft printing of silk fabric in the presence of sulphamic acid

The effect of printing silk fabrics in the presence sulphamic acid has been investigated. Sulphamic acid introduces sulphonate groups into silk's structure and confers good resist properties for acid dyes on silk. An increased uptake of basic dyes has also been found. The light fastness of such dyeings was better than on ungrafted silk, being similar to values obtained on acrylic substrates. White and coloured resist effects have been investigated.