The Effect of Metallic and Natural Mordants on Color Properties of Silk Fabrics Dyed with Hibiscus Sabdariffa L.

In recent years, the dyeing of textiles, especially the fibers used in handmade carpets, with natural colorant and mordant, has attracted the attention of researchers. Hibiscus sabdariffa L. is a rich source of natural colorant from the anthocyanin class. This research has studied silk fibers' color and fastness parameters with the dye extracted from Hibiscus sabdariffa calyces in the presence of different metallic and natural mordants with pre-, meta- and post-mordanting methods. Metal salts such as iron (II) sulfate, aluminum potassium sulfate, calcium lignosulfonate, and natural materials such as tannic acid and sodium alginate were used as mordants. The results indicate that the meta-mordanting method, sodium alginate (4.01), and calcium lignosulfonate (4.49) have created the highest color strength. Also, the post-mordanting method and tannic acid and calcium lignosulfonate mordants provide the best washing fastness (grade 5 on grayscale), and the post-mordanting method and sodium alginate and calcium lignosulfonate mordants provide the best light fastness (grade 5-6 in blue scale).