Natural Indigo Dyeing of Cotton Fabric - One-step reduction/dyeing process -

The objective of this study is to investigate the characteristics of natural indigo dyeing of cotton fabric. Reduction and dyeing were carried out by one-step process using an infrared dyeing machine at the liquor ratio of 1:100, and subsequently oxidation and washing in water were followed. Dye uptake was increased with the increase of indigo concentration. Over the full range of dyeing tests, the dyeing condition was optimized to 40℃ for 40min. For most of dye concentrations, the cotton fabrics showed mainly PB color. Maximum K/S value was shown at 4g/L of sodium hydrosulfite concentration and the color strength increased with the increase of dye concentration. Value(lightness) decreased with the increase of dye uptake irrespective of mercerization or reduction method, while the mercerized cotton showed two times higher dye uptake than the untreated cotton. Whereas hue of the untreated cotton showed large decrease of P character(5.6~3.5 PB) with the increase of dye uptake, that of the mercerized cotton increased P character(4.7~5.5 PB). Irrespective of mercerization, value and chroma decreased with the increased of dye uptake. In addition, the untreated showed lower chroma than the mercerized cotton. In the case of traditional reduction, hue of the untreated cotton was changed very little with the increase of dye uptake. For hydrosulfite reduction, P character decreased with the increase of dye uptake. The difference of hue value was small with the change of reduction method(hydrosulfite reduction or traditional fermentation). Color character was not influenced by the changed maximum absorption wavelength. Washing fastness showed 4~4/5 shade change rating without any staining. And dry rubbing fastness was good at low color strength. The bacterial reduction ratios of dyed cotton fabric were also increased.