Extraction and Characterization of Natural Dyes for Textile Applications from Hibiscus sabdariffa

Abstract

In this research work, a natural dye was extracted from H. sabdariffa , characterized to determine the ideal conditions for textile applications and evaluated the efficiency of the dye on textile fabrics. This natural dye is desirable due to its propensity to reduce environmental pollution when used to substitute synthetic dyes. H. sabdariffa contains a pigment known as anthocyanin which is the prime component of this dye responsible for its red color. The extraction of the dye by solvent extraction by maceration and followed by colorimetric analysis and the determination of ideal application conditions was realized using the Box-Behnken Design software with three factors that included concentration of the electrolyte in the dye bath (mg/L), the minimum time of the dyeing process (min.) and the temperature of the dye bath (?C). The responses analyzed were the % dye exhaustion and the color strength of the dye. The experimental results of the responses allowed us to determine the optimal conditions of application using a validated quadratic polynomial model. The best yield of dye extraction was 9.60 ± 0.79%, the colorimetric characteristics of the dye were respectively 32.57 ± 1.90 for the lightness, 1.08 ± 0.05 and 9.89 ± 0.18 for a * and b * , 10.22 ± 0.59 and 263.39 ± 2.92 for the saturation and the hue. The Hydrogen potential was 3.14 ± 0.02. The optimal conditions obtained were: an electrolyte concentration of 80 mg/L, a temperature of 80?C for 37.71 min to obtain a dye bath exhaustion of 95.02% and a color strength of 6.78 g/Kg. These conditions could therefore be implemented in the application of the bio dye obtained from H. sabdariffa to improve the quality of dyeing products with attendant environmental sanitization.