The Sustainable Coloration of Wool Fabric Using Naturally Extracted Dyes from Sappan Heartwood

Dyestuffs extracted from naturally originated materials are getting popularity in terms of environment-friendly biobased perspective and awareness. The natural colors were imparted into the wool fabric surface after extraction from sappan wood plants through applying exhaustion dyeing methods. Besides, three mordants (aluminum potassium sulfate (AlK(SO4)2, copper sulfate (CuSO4), and zinc sulfates (ZnSO4·) were used as mordanting materials for better fixation of extracted dyes on wool fabrics. The colored wool fabrics exhibited better color performances especially at optimum conditions (temperature 80°C, time 60 min, and pH 4.0) in terms of CIE lab values (CIE L* a* b*) and color strength (K/S). Moderate colorfastness results were also achieved without any color fading on wool surfaces. The morphological analysis showed that dyed fabrics surfaces are more uniform than undyed fabric. The FTIR (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy) spectra confirmed the presence of higher absorptions onto dyed fabric, resulting in a better thermal stability property for dyed fabric. Besides, UV protection of the dyed fabric exhibited a higher UPF value than undyed fabric, which denotes that our utilized dye could enhance the functional property of the wool fabric. Satisfactory mechanical properties also further confirmed the successful application potentiality of greenly synthesized natural colorants on wool fabric.