Mordant dye application on cotton: optimisation and combination with natural dyes

It is well known that cotton fibres can be dyed through the formation of coordinate bonds involving cellulose chains, mordants such as alum, and natural dyes such as alizarin. Similarly, synthetic dyes known as mordant acid dyes can be used to dye wool fibres. Unlike mordant dyes on wool, the fastnesses of natural dyes on cotton are often low. Although concerns surrounding textile sustainability have sparked renewed interest in the use of natural dyes, extensive replacement of synthetic dyes with natural dyes is neither practical nor fundamentally possible. However, similarities in dyeing methods using mordant and natural dyes raise the possibility of using mordant dyes as alternatives to natural dyes in the dyeing of cotton. Further, the potential for combining suitable dyes from these two classes to expand the colour gamut currently available from natural dyes on cotton seem worthy of exploration. The results of this study indicate that shades comparable with those produced by natural dyes can be obtained on cotton using select mordant dyes following Fe²⁺ and Al³⁺ pretreatments. The best results were obtained using a two‐step/two‐bath process and dyes such as CI Mordant Blue 13 and CI Mordant Orange 6. In evaluations of mordant and natural dye combinations using the two mordant dyes logwood and Osage orange as prototypes, interesting fabric shades were obtained. However, the fastness properties of these dyes must be improved in order to produce commercially viable dyeings.