Journal of Textile Science & Engineering

Colouration and Performance Evaluation of Ethiopian Kusha Fibres

Abstract

Tambizot Getachew Alemayehu*

Bast fibre dyeing process was common practice as the value addition of most bast fibres was demanded for various commercial and household
applications. In this research work, kusha fibre (which was extracted in our previous work) subjected to dyeing using direct, reactive, vat
and cationic dyes for the first time. The dyeing process was performed using concentrations 0.5%, 1%& 3% (W/W) dye to fibre with MLR
1:20. After dyeing process; performance of dyed fibre (dye absorbency measurement, colourfastness to washing, colourfastness to
rubbing, colourfastness to light) and tensile tests were conducted. The results revealed that; K/S value of all dyed kusha fibre
samples increases as the concentration of dyes applied increases, the colourfastness to washing of dyed fibres except the of direct
dyes were found good, in both dry and wet rubbing fastness, reactive dyed samples have overall good rubbing fatness performance over the
others, light fastness result shows it is good performance for all samples according to blue wool light fastness standard that exceeds 6. The
tensile strength and elongation of dyed samples showed slight decrement in both vat and direct dyed samples; whereas, the considerable
decrement was observed both in samples dyed with reactive and basic dyes as there is formation of covalent bond between fibre and dye
and acid medium of processing affected the tensile property respectively.