Study the effect of metal ion on wool fabric dyeing with tea as natural dye

Aqueous extract of natural dye, tea was dyed on the wool fabric with dark brown for 2% and 5% shade. The tea containing tannins as the main colorant species to produce different shade with different mordant salts. The mordant salts Alum, CuSO(4), FeSO(4), ZnSO(4), Na(2)SO(4), and MgSO(4) were used to dye fabric using three different dyeing methods: pre-mordanting, meta-mordanting and post-mordanting. The color of the fabric was investigated on Data Color matching system in terms of K/S and CIE Lab-color difference values. The post-mordanting method gave the great depth of shade of natural dye tea with 2% and 5% shade, it also give good light fastness and wash fastness properties. Copper was found as a good mordant to achieve the best results with transition metal ions effect. Deep shades (K/S = 17.50) were obtained for original sample of 5% with color difference DE value is 0.17, as compare to 2% original sample of tea of light brown shades (K/S = 10.50) with color difference DE value is 0.50 under maintained temperature at 85 degrees C for 35 min of dyeing. (C) 2009 King Saud University. All rights reserved.