COLOUR FASTNESS PROPERTIES OF MORDANTS AND MORDANTING METHODS WHEN DYED WITH USED TEA LEAVES ON SILK FABRIC

Awareness about environmental concerns and ill effects on health caused by synthetic dyes has made the natural dyes comeback. Many natural materials from plant and animal sources are being identified as possible colourants, one such established colorant is tea leaves. Tea is primarily consumed in large quantity as a beverage all over the world. The reused tea dust as a colourant was explored in this study and its fastness property of silk fabric under different mordanting methods and mordants was evaluated. It was observed that the reused tea leaves contained colourants but more effort was involved in the extraction of dye to obtaining the required shade. The post mordanting method was found to have better colour fastness and visual properties. Potassium dichromate and alum significantly improved the fastness properties of the dyed samples