Eco-friendly dyeing of silk with copper pod bark extract

A natural colorant extracted from the bark of copper pod tree, grown abundantly in India and the world over as an avenue tree, is utilized for coloration of silk fabric. Different mordants at varying concentrations were used on silk for pre-mordanting to study their effect on the color value and fastness properties of the dyed samples. Silk fabrics were also dyed with different mordanting techniques using lowest concentration of mordants. Color values with respect to K/S, L* a* b* and fastness properties were found to be influenced by the concentration, type of mordant and technique of mordanting.