An Economical Dyeing Process for Cotton and Wool Fabrics and Improvement their Antibacterial Properties and UV protection

Abstract

ABSTRACTEnvironmental, economic concerns, and prolonged human exposure to solar ultraviolet radiation have created an increasing demand for natural dyestuff. A study on the cotton and wool fabrics functionality to achieve UV protection and antibacterial properties was carried out by aqueous extract of barberry roots and red onion skin as the natural dyes. The alkaloid berberine extracted from the fruits of Berberis vulgaris and flavonoids and anthocyanin from red onion skin (Alliumcepa L) are natural dyes with antibacterial activity, UV protection and available as waste materials. The properties of dyed wool and cotton fabrics with these two natural dyes and two dyeing methods (exhaustion and ultrasonic) such as their color fastness, color intensity, and antibacterial efficacy ultraviolet protection factor (UPF) were investigated in this research. The results confirmed that the high level of antibacterial activity and (UPF) values of dyed wool fabrics with barberry roots and red onion skin and they are more than the dyed cotton fabrics in the same condition and has better result with the ultrasonic method. So by combining two dyestuff and ultrasonic method, on cotton dyeing, the level of antibacterial activity and UPF value increased.