Development of Eco-friendly Dyeing Process Based on Caesalpinia sappan L. Bark, Cocos nucifera Fiber and Leucaena leucocephala Leaves

Abstract

Natural dyes have begun to regain attention due to biodegradable nature and low negative impact on human health and the environment. Besides, the continuous development of color shades variants from several natural sources of newly available abundant natural dyes and their ability to produce high color intensity and high wash fastness has become a major consideration of their use in textile dyeing. This study has evaluated the potential utilization of <em>Caesalpinia sappan</em> L bark, <em>Cocos nucifera</em> fiber, and <em>Leucaena leucocephala</em> leaf as a single and combination natural dye material. In particular, the extracts of these natural dye materials are used to dye the cotton fibers by involving mordanting stages using alum and fixation using iron (II) sulfate, alum, and calcium oxide compounds. The quality of the resulting dyeing was evaluated by the intensity of the color and wash fastness against wet washing. The dyeing results showed the appearance of varied shades of color with the dominance of the typical reddish color of <em>Caesalpinia sappan</em> L. While the results of the analysis using <em>Diffuse Reflectance Ultraviolet</em> (DRUV) and the wash fastness using the staining scale method showed high color dyeing with the color intensity in the range 53.55% - 94.34% with wash fastness in the staining scale range 2 (less) – 4 (good). Specifically, in contrast to the behavior of dye AB, the AC staining scale increases with increasing dye C added (up to 50%) and decreases when dye C added increases to 75% (dye AC3).