Improving Printability of Silk and Polyamide Substrates with Madder Nano-Sized Particles

The possibility of using madder nanoscaled particles, as a natural dye for printing silk and polyamide 6 fabrics, has been investigated. The dried plant is both milled and exposed to ultrasound waves (for a specific period of time), incorporated with urea in the printing paste at an acidic pH value, printed on the pretreated fabrics and eventually the prints are steamed and washed off. The influence of several parameters and measurements affecting K/S values as well as fastness levels of the prints are studied in detail i.e. mordant and urea concentrations, printing paste pH, SEM, TEM and FT-IR analysis and fastness properties. Results show that, printing using nano-scaled particles of the natural dye greatly enhances both: K/S values and fastness levels of the prints. SEM, FT-IR and UV visible spectroscopes are employed to show particle changes after milling as well as sonication.