The purpose of this experiment was to determine the effect of various amounts of mordant on the color-fastness of natural dye.
I became
interested in this idea when I realized while looking at Native American
baskets in a museum that they had held their color for hundreds of years.
I began to wonder how this was possible
without the benefit of modern technology.
The information gained from this experiment could benefit people who are
still using natural dyes today.
My hypothesis was that increasing the amount of mordant would increase the color-fastness of the natural dye.
I based my hypothesis on statement in the
book Materials Science: Dyes, Paints, and Adhesives By Brian Kemp. It stated
that the more mordant used the better the dyestuffs hold fast to the fabric.
EXPERIMENT DESIGN
The constants in this study were:
- The kind of dye
- The kind of mordant
- The amount of time that the cloth samples were in
the dye solution
- The temperature of the dye mixture (boiling)
- The type of cloth (cotton).
- The washer used to wash the cloth samples.
- The detergent used in the washing process.
- The colorimeter
- The container in which the dye is boiled and the
samples of cloth are dyed
- The temperature the cloth is air dried after
dying
The manipulated variable was the amount of mordant used during the staining process.
The responding
variable was the lightness of the dyed cloth after repeated washing.
To measure the
responding variable I used a Hunter reflectance colorimeter to determine the
lightness of the dyed cloth samples.
QUANTITY
|
ITEM
DESCRIPTION
|
60
|
Samples of
100% cotton cloth squares
|
2
|
Bags of
natural dye
|
1
|
Colorimeter
|
1
|
Box of
potassium aluminum sulfate
|
1
|
Washer
|
1
|
Detergent
|
2
|
Pots
|
1
|
Timer
|
1
|
Measuring cup
|
1
|
Clothes pins
|
14
|
Clothesline
|
1
|
Stove
|
1. Prepare 1 3/4 yards of cloth by washing and drying with no fabric softener
2. Cut the cloth into 5x5 pieces (62 needed)
3. Divide the sixty-two pieces of cloth into five groups of ten and five groups of two.
4. Label each piece of cloth in the left hand corner with a permanent marker. Each group of ten should have a different label. Stating “M” for mordant, then the amount of mordant, a dash and the cloth number in the group.
5. Store each
group of cloth in a separate baggies.
6. Prepare the natural dye by opening four cans of beets.
A.) Pour the
beets into a pot through a strainer
B.) Use your hands to squeeze the beets to get the remaining dye out
C.) Pour 3 cans of water over the top of the beets so that the dye that you couldn’t get out will drain into the pot.
D.) Strain the
dye three times(or more if needed) to make sure that the beet pulp does not get
mixed in with the solution.
E.) Bring the dye to a boil and let it boil for 1 minute.
F.) Separate the dye equally into five glass bowls.
7. Dye the
cloth
A.) Add x
amount of mordant (0, 2, 10, 25, or 50) in a pot with a bowl of the
natural dye solution.
B.) Using a timer once solution starts to boil time for 5 minutes
C.) Put one group of ten cloth squares into the solution all at the same time (this group should be marked appropriately for the amount of mordant that is in the solution.)
D.) Set the timer for 20 minutes. Once all the cloth samples have been dropped in the solution start the timer.
E.) When timer hits zero remove cloth samples from solution using tongs.
8. Cool and dry
on a clothesline for 24 hours then remove and store. Placing each group in
separate baggies.
9. Repeat steps 8-9 five times until you have used the amount of mordant in each group (0, 2, 10, 25, 50)
10. Wash the dyed cloth samples separately the first time in their groups of ten and dry in the same manner.
11. Look at the cloth samples and see if there is a visible difference in the coloration. If there isn’t then wash the cloth samples again and again until there is a visible difference in the coloration.
12. Once again dry and store in baggies
13. Use the hunter colorimeter at Tree Top to measure the darkness of the dye that is remaining in the cloth.
A.) Turn on the
computer and colorimeter
B.) Show the colorimeter what white is by placing the white tile over the hole on the top of the colorimeter. Press F3 to make the colorimeter read the tile.
C.) Repeat step 13b. with the black tile.
D.) Take your already dyed and washed cloth samples and place them one at a time over the top of the hole. Place the black cylinder on top of the cloth over the hole.
E.) Press F3 so the colorimeter will read the cloth sample.
F.) Look at the label on the cloth
G.) Copy it down into the column on the computer that says ID and press enter to save the data onto the table
H.) Repeat step
13d. through 13g. until all your cloth samples have been read by the
colorimeter.
14. Print the
data and turn off the colorimeter and the computer.
14. Average your results from the colorimeter for each group of ten and record them on a table.
The original purpose of this experiment was to determine the effect of various amounts of mordant on the color-fastness of natural dye.
The results of
this experiment were the whiteness (luminance) values given by the
colorimeter. For the control group with
0 grams of mordant, the average whiteness was 78.60. Using 2 grams of mordant, the whiteness was
76.96. For the 10 grams of mordant group
the whiteness was 77.52 for the 25 grams
of mordant group, the whiteness was 77.08.
Finally the 50 grams of mordant group had a reading of 77.24. These results
show that the amount of mordant used in the dyeing process does not make a big
difference. However some amount of mordant is better than none.
CONCLUSION
My hypothesis was that increasing the amount of mordant would increase the color-fastness of the natural dye.
The results
indicate that this hypothesis should be rejected. It is true that adding
mordant increases colorfastness, but it is not true that multiplying the amount
of mordant helps.
Because of
the results of this experiment, I wonder if different types of mordant would
make a larger impact on the colorfastness of the fabric rather than different
amounts. It is also possible that beet juice was no the ideal dye so it would be desirable to redo this
experiment using a powerful dye.
If I were to conduct this project I would use
a different type of dye, cloth, and or mordant.
Researched
by - Audre H.
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