Sustainable Application of Microwave Assisted Extracted Tea Based Tannin Natural Dye for Chemical and Bio-Mordanted Wool Fabric

Environmental issues are rising day by day in the global community due to the cumulative effects of hazardous effluent load and due to the introduction of biological active natural products into all aspects of life. In this study, the waste tea-leaves-based tannin natural dye has been extracted under the influence of microwave treatment and employed onto bio-mordanted wool fabric. For extraction of dye, microwave (MW) irradiation up to 6 min has been employed and for improvement in color strength, bio-mordants in comparison with chemicals mordants. It has been found that acidic extract of tea leaves after MW treatment for 6 min has given excellent color depth (K/S) on MW treated wool at 80 degrees C. Using bio-mordants, it has been found that 4% of acacia extract, 1% of pomegranate extract and 5% of turmeric extract as pre bio-mordant, whereas 5% of acacia and 2% of pomegranate and turmeric as post bio-mordants have given excellent color strength, whereas in comparison, ferrous sulfate (2%) has given excellent results. It has been concluded that microwave treatment as an environmentally sustainable tool has not only improved the color strength of tannins dye onto wool fabric but also with the addition of bio-mordants has made the process more sustainable.

Automated summary

In this study, waste tea-leaves-based tannin natural dye was extracted using microwave treatment and applied onto bio-mordanted wool fabric. The use of microwave treatment and bio-mordants improved the color strength of the dye and made the process more sustainable.