The rising demand for environmentally friendly and sustainable dyes for textile coloring has led to a resurgence in the use of natural dyes. Nevertheless, optimizing the condition of natural dyes for application on cotton remains a challenge. This study aims to identify the effects of dyeing parameters on the properties of naturally dyed cotton.
For this purpose, a natural dye was extracted from prickly pear fruits using an aqueous method. The cotton fabric was cationized with 3-chloro-2-hydroxypropyl-trimethyl ammonium chloride to facilitate the dyeing process without using any auxiliaries. The effects of the dye bath pH, dye concentration and dyeing temperature were established experimentally.
It was observed that color strength (K/S) values decrease with the increase in dyeing temperature. However, good colorfastness properties, ultraviolet protection factor and K/S were obtained at low dyeing temperatures.
This research presents a sustainable natural dyeing process using a cationizing agent, achieving good fastness and K/S properties without the need for auxiliaries and at low temperatures.
