Obtaining Colored Patterns on Wool Fabric via Chitosan Application by Printing Prior to Dyeing

Chitosan is the second most abundant polysaccharide in nature after cellulose and has been extensively used in cosmetics, food and environmental protection, and material sciences. It has also many different application fields in textile. One of them is printing. Chitosan has been applied on fabrics prior to printing to enhance color or it has been used in printing paste as a thickener or binder. However, in none of the studies, chitosan was used in order to obtain colored patterns via printing. The aim of this study was to obtain colored patterns on wool fabrics via chitosan application by printing and then dyeing. For this purpose, printing was made on 100% wool fabrics with a colorless paste prepared with chitosan dissolved in acidic medium. Then, printed samples were dyed with acid and reactive dyes. The printing effects, color yields and fastness values of the samples were examined. A significant color difference has occurred in the un-treated and printed areas of wool fabrics dyed with acid and reactive dyes, which are anionic in nature, so that it has been shown that various color patterns could be obtained by printing with chitosan.