Saminathan Ratnapandian

Further work

1. Increasing the scale of experiments

The above experiments could be conducted on an industrial scale to determine economic and environmental impact. This would require shade cards of varying depths of shade with their individual process parameters. Further, the wide variety of natural dyes offers enormous scope for developing new shades in combination with different mordants. In the large scale trials, plasma pretreatment or the addition of chitosan in the pad liquor could be evaluated individually or in combination to enhance process efficiency.

2. Analysis of dye-metal-textile complex

Investigations into the structure of the metal chelates using FTIR and 2D-IR would yield better understanding of the bonds modified or created during dyeing. Such knowledge could be used in engineering an optimised dyeing process and recipe.

AAS analysis could be utilised to quantitatively analyse the metal retaining capacity of polyphenols by themselves or in combination with different textile substrates. The results could be applied in diverse fields such as filtration, separation and pollution control (for absorbing dissolved metals)

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3. Effects of chitosan

Exhaust dyeing incorporating chitosan in the dye bath is a prospective area of investigation. The antimicrobial efficacy of fabrics pad-dyed in the presence of chitosan could be evaluated against other strains of microbes. Keeping in mind the possible application of hospital bed linen, the wash durability of the antimicrobial character could also be investigated.-

4. Indigo colouration

The present work on padding of indigo could be extended by determining the lowest amount of the alternate chemicals required for a given range of shade depths. The study
could be broadened by verifying the degree of dye diffusion into the fabric. Alternate thickeners compatible with sodium carbonate as the alkali could be evaluated for indigo printing.