Proceedings of the ATNT 2007 on 18-20, June 2007

2007 Kumaraguru College of Technology,

Coimbatore - 6; India

Dyeing of Silk Yarn with Monkey Jack

Ava Phukan, Senior Scientist, R. Phukan, Research Associate, and
S. Choudhury, Research Associate
Department of Clothing and textiles
Faculty of Home Science
Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat 785 013, Assam, India
Ph. No. +9194353 53949

ABSTRACT
The presents study was undertaken with an aim to study the dyeing conditions of
Monkey jack dye on silk yarn. Bark of Monkey jack was used as colorants on silk
yarn. The mordants used in the research work were Aluminium Potassium
Sulphate, Potassium dichromate, Copper Sulphate and ferrous sulphate. The
selected natural dye was extracted by acidic method and the extraction time was
optimized from the optical density values. Three mordanting methods namely premordanting, simultaneous and post mordanting methods were also studied in the
present work. It has been observed that pre-mordanting method was found to be
the best method for all the mordants.
Different shades of beige, brown colors were obtained with Monkey jack dye on
silk yarn. Fastness grades rated for all the samples were found to be fairly good
irrespective of mordants and mordanting methods.

1. Introduction
Natural dyes have been part and parcel of mens life, since time immemorial.
The age old art of dyeing with natural dyes was common in India (1). Natural dyes can
be obtained from natural sources such as vegetable matter, minerals and insects. Early
efforts of coloring fabrics were hampered by the fact that some of the dyes are not very
colorfast. Eventually scientist found that this defect could be partially overcome by the
use of mordants. The natural coloring substances are now developing trends for their
use all over the world because of health hazards and toxicity problems created by the
synthetic dyes (2, 3).
Considering the growing importance of natural colorants all over the world, the
present work was undertaken with on aim to study the dyeing conditions of Monkey
jack dye on silk yarn.
Materials and Methods
2. Materials & Methods:
2.1 Selection of fiber: Degummed silk yarns were used for the research work.
2.2 Selection of natural dyes: Bark of Monkey jack (Artocarpus lakoocha) were used as

colourants on silk yarn

ATNT 2007 on 18-20, June 2007 at KCT, Coimbatore - 6

2.3 Selection of mordants: The mordants used in the research work were Aluminium
potassium sulphate (alum), Potassium Dichromate (chrome), Copper Sulphate, &
Ferrous Sulphate
2.4 Extraction of dyes

Selected natural dye was extracted by acidic method 1% of acidic solution was
prepared by adding 1 ml of HCl in 100 ml of soft water. Dye materials were entered
and boil at 100C. Optical density values were then recorded after filtering the dye
solution.
2.5 Mordanting methods

Three mordanting methods namely premordanting, simultaneous mordanting

and post mordanting methods were used for the present work.
2.6 Selection of mordant concentration

The amount of mordants used in dyeing plays an important role as the mordants
forms the link between the dyestuff and fiber. Three mordant percentages were used
and the observations were made at three levels. 5, 10 and 15% concentrations were
used for alum and for other three mordants, 2,4 and 6% concentration were used.
2.6 Test for color fastness

All the dyed yarn samples were evaluated for color fastness to washing
sunlight, rubbing, and perspiration by the Indian standard procedures
3. Results and Discussion:
The findings of the present work are discussed below. The optimized
extraction time was one hour since the difference of OD values from one hour to two
hour was very negligible.
3.1. Optimization of dye material concentration
Table 1. Optimization of dye material concentration for monkey jack dye on silk
Monkey Jack dye
Concentration of dye material in g/100ml of liquor

% dye absorption

1.0

40.20

2.0

45.22

3.0

35.50

4.0

50.20

5.0*

52.50

6.0

47.00

7.0

46.20

8.0

39.70

9.0

30.50

10.0

35.10

* Indicates the optimum dye material concentration.

Dyeing of Silk Yarn with Monkey Jack. J

It can be seen from the Table 1and Fig. 1 that the % dye absorption was
found to be highest at 5 gm of dye material concentration. Hence 5 gm of dye material
concentration was selected as optimum.

60

Dye absorption %

50
40
30
20
10
0
1

10

Dye material concentration (g/g silk)

Fig. 1. Optimization of dye material concentration for Monkey jack dye

3.2. Optimization of dyeing time for monkey jack dye

Table 2. Optimization of dyeing time on silk by determining per cent dye absorption
English name of the dye

Dyeing time (min)

% of dye absorption

Monkey jack

15

50.30

30

60.0

45*

74.49

* The time selected was 45 minutes as the % absorption was high at this period (Table 2).

3.3. Optimization of concentration of mordants

Optimization of concentration of all mordants are given in Table 3 and Fig. 2.

Table 3. Optimization of concentration of mordants for monkey jack dye
Name of the mordants

Aluminium potassium sulphate

(Alum)

Potassium dichromate (chrome)

Concentration of the
mordant g/100g of silk

% dye absorption

5
10
15
20
2
4
6

66.70
70.65*
62.75
65.50
69.21
74.17*
71.17

ATNT 2007 on 18-20, June 2007 at KCT, Coimbatore - 6

8
2
4
6
8
2
4
6
8

Copper sulphate

Ferrous sulphate

65.25
72.17
71.34
78.44*
75.24
72.38
75.06*
71.62
67.25

It can be seen from the Table 3and Fig. 2 that the % dye absorption was
maximum at 10 per cent, 4 per cent, 6 per cent and 4 per cent concentration for alum,
chrome, copper sulphate and ferrous sulphate respectively.
3.4. Optimization of mordanting methods for all the mordants

Optimization of mordanting methods are given in Table 4

Table 4. Optimization of mordanting methods for all the mordants for monkey jack dye
Method of mordanting

Pre-mordanting

Simultaneous

Post mordanting

Type of mordant

Conc. of mordant
(g/100 of silk)

% dye absorption

10.0*
4.0*
6.0*
4.0*
10.0
4.0
6.0
4.0
10.0
4.0
6.0
4.0

86.57*
84.65
86.18
85.89
70.65
74.17
78.44
75.06
64.49
60.00
70.32
78.51

Alum
Chrome
Copper sulphate
Ferrous sulphate
Alum
Chrome
Copper sulphate
Ferrous sulphate
Alum
Chrome
Copper sulphate
Ferrous sulphate

* Indicates the optimum mordanting methods

It can be seen from the Table 4 that the optimum mordanting method for all the
mordants was pre-mordanting.
3.5. Colors produced by monkey jack dye on silk

Monkey jack with alum and chrome produced different shades of beige colours.
Dark brown shades were obtained with copper sulphate and ferrous sulphate mordants.

Dyeing of Silk Yarn with Monkey Jack. J

80
70

% dye absorption

60
50
40
30
20
10
0
5

10

15

AlK (SO4)2

20

K2Cr2O7

CuSO4

FeSO4

Concentration of the mordant g/100g of silk

Fig. 2. Optimization of concentration of mordants for Monkey jack dye

3.6. Fastness grades for monkey jack dye

Fastness grades rated for all the test were good which indicates that the yarns
dyed with monkey jack were color fast irrespective of mordants and mordanting
methods.
Summary
All mordants viz., alum, chrome, copper sulphate and ferrous sulphate were
found to be suitable for application on silk. 10% alum, 4% chrome, 6% copper
sulphate and 4% ferrous sulphate had given different shades of beige and dark brown
colours on silk. Pre-mordanting was found to be good for alum, chrome and copper
sulphate treated samples. The color fastness was also found to be good for all the
samples for most of the conditions.
Acknowledgement
The authors express their sincere thanks to Indian Council of Agricultural
Research, New Delhi for financial support and Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat
for facilitating the research.
References
1. Palmer, J. Dyeing with natural dyes. Published by Thorosons Publishers Ltd.
Wellinggh borough. pp. 9-10, 1980.
2. Gahlat, M. and Kaur, S. Rebirth of Natural Dyes. The Indian Textile Journal. 106(5)
: pp. 46-48, 1996.
3. Gulrajini, M.L. Present status of Natural dyes Colourage; 46(7) 19-18, 1999.