Studies on Color Interaction Parameters and Color Fastness Properties for Dyeing of Cotton Fabrics with Binary Mixtures of Jackfruit Wood and other Natural Dyes

Bleached cotton fabric (after sequential pre-mordanting with myrobolan and then with aluminum sulfate applied in sequence) has been dyed with a pre-fixed concentration of purified binary mixtures of jackfruit wood (JFW) and other natural dyes, like manjistha (MJ), red sandalwood (RSW), mariegold (MG), sappan wood (SW) and babool (BL) in different proportions to obtain a variety of compound shades with varying color strength (K/S values) and related color parameters. Data on color fastness ratings for such dyed cotton fabrics to washing, light, and rubbing show somewhat moderate to poor washing fastness and light fastness properties in some cases, but quite a good rubbing fastness in all cases. To improve the wash and light fastness of these dyed cotton fabrics, the dyed cotton fabrics were further treated with selected cationic dye-fixing agents and also with an UV-absorber compound, respectively. 1% CTAB and 1% Sandofix HCF post-treatment rendered these dyed fabrics one grade higher washing fastness and 1% benztriazole treatment also increased the light fastness rating by half to one unit in most cases. The chemical interaction for these improvements of washing and light fastness properties by the said after-treatments have been discussed to explain the observed effects.