Effect of metallic mordants on pH and Optical density values of the dyed fabrics by using aqueous extracted eco-friendly natural dye from shells of Juglans regia

The present work explores the potential of eco-friendly phytochromic dyeing of walnut shells with two different kinds of fibres viz. cotton and silk by using some metallic mordants such as copper sulphate, potassium dichromate, stannous chloride and ferrous sulphate. The aqueous extracted natural dye of the walnut shells exhibits good range of colours with varying shades of warm beige, caramel brown, funnel seed, yellow beige and golden beige for different metallic mordants for dyeing of cotton fabric whereas shades like almond white, ochre, golden bronze, warm sand and light beige are observed in the case of silk fabric by using different metallic mordants. Pre-mordanting method was used under this study. The variations in optical density (OD) and pH-values of the solutions (with and without mordanting w.r.t. pre-mordanting method) were also measured (before and after dyeing the fabrics) with the help of UV-Vis- spectrophotometer and pH-meter respectively.