Enhancing cotton fabric dyeing: Optimizing Mordanting with natural dyes and citric acid

This study investigates the optimization of fabric dyeing using natural dyes extracted from Clitoria ternatea, Cudrania javanensis, and Hibiscus sabdarifa by enhancing the mordanting process with citric acid. The principle of adding citric acid is as a crosslinker agent between cotton fabric and dye through an esterification reaction. A central composite design (CCD) of the response surface methodology (RSM) is employed to optimize parameters. Three mordanting variations and dyeing parameters, such as temperature and time, are considered. Results indicate that pre-mordanting yields superior outcomes, with optimal temperature and time at 65 °C and 82 min, respectively. Cotton fabric dyed with Cudrania javanensis and citric acid exhibits the highest color durability. This study successfully demonstrates the effectiveness of pre-mordanting, meta-mordanting, and post-mordanting methods with optimized conditions for achieving optimal coloring outcomes, particularly highlighting the efficacy of citric acid as a crosslinking agent.