How to Make the Boldest, Brightest Tie Dye!

Related Links

• Science Fair Project Guide

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• Chemistry Safety Guide

Project Summary

Difficulty	4
Time required	Average (about a week)
Prerequisites	None
Material Availability	Readily available
Cost	Low ($20–$50)
Safety	Adult supervision recommended.

Sponsor

Sponsored by a generous grant from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation

Objective

The goal of this project is to test how strongly fiber-reactive dyes color different fabric types.

Introduction

Fabrics are made from many different fiber types. Some fabrics, like cotton, wool, and linen, are made from natural fibers. Other fabrics, like polyester, nylon, and rayon, are made from manufactured or synthetic fibers.

Another way of categorizing the fibers is by their chemistry. Cotton and linen fibers are cellulose-based (as is rayon, a manufactured fiber). Wool and silk are both protein-based natural fibers. Wool is made from the hair of sheep, and silk is made from silkworm cocoons. Nylon and polyester are synthetic fibers, i.e., manufactured from chemicals. Both are long-chain polymers—chemical compounds made from repeated subunits—but nylon is a polyamide, and polyester is, well, a polyester.

In this project, you'll study how fiber-reactive dyes interact with the fibers in different fabric types. From your background research, you should learn about the chemistry of these dyes, as well as the chemistry of the different fiber types. Which fiber types will react most strongly with the dyes? You'll be able to judge the results by comparing the colors of your fabric samples. One quantitative way to categorize colors is by hue, saturation, and brightness. The Bibliography has references to get you started on dye and fabric chemistry, and also two good references on color. The first color reference in the Bibliography (Jewett, 2002) has a nice graphic of a color cone, which illustrates what is meant by the terms hue, saturation, and brightness. The second color reference (Zarathustra, 1998) has a Java applet with three sliders for hue, saturation, and brightness so you can experiment with making your own colors.

Terms, Concepts and Questions to Start Background Research

To do this project, you should do research that enables you to understand the following terms and concepts:

• textile fibers:
  • natural,
  • synthetic.
  • fiber-reactive dyes,
  • polymer,
• color terms:
  • hue,
  • saturation,
  • brightness.

Questions

• What parts of plants are used to make textile fibers?

Bibliography

• Armstrong, W.P., 2006. "Plant Fibers: Fibers For Paper, Cordage & Textiles," Wayne's Word: An Online Textbook of Natural History [accessed October 18, 2006] http://waynesword.palomar.edu/traug99.htm.
• For basic information on manufactured fibers, see:
  AFMA, 2005. "FiberSource: The Manufactured Fiber Industry," FiberSource.com [accessed October 18, 2006] http://www.fibersource.com/.
• Craft, H., date unknown. "Dyeing Fabric," TheCraftStudio.com [accessed October 18, 2006] http://www.thecraftstudio.com/heddi/dying.htm.
• For information on describing color:
  
  • Jewett, T., 2002. "Colors: HSB," Department of Computer Engineering and Computer Science, California State University, Long Beach [accessed October 18, 2006] http://www.cecs.csulb.edu/~jewett/colors/hsb.html.
  • On this webpage you can use sliders to control hue, saturation, and brightness to produce a color swatch right on your monitor (requires Java):
    Zarathustra, M., 200x. "Hue, Saturation and Brightness Demo," [accessed October 18, 2006] http://people.ucsc.edu/~mlz/hue/index.html.

Materials and Equipment

To do this experiment you will need the following materials and equipment:

• white fabric samples (9 cm × 45 cm), each made from different fiber types, e.g.:
  • cotton,
  • linen,
  • wool,
  • rayon,
  • nylon,
  • polyester,
  • cotton-polyester blends;
• permanent marker,
• fiber reactive dye powder,
• soda ash (sodium carbonate, locally try a hardware store or swimming pool supply store),
  • An online supplier for both dye powder and soda ash is Dharma Trading Company. They sell both dyes and soda ash in small quantities at reasonable prices. Here is a link to their Fiber Reactive Procion Dyes page: http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/3796-AA.shtml?lnav=dyes.html.
• teaspoon and tablespoon measure (to be used only for dye project, not for cooking afterwards),
• half-gallon plastic container (for mixing soda ash solution),
• clean glass jar (10 oz. or larger, for mixing dye solution),
• 1 gallon Ziploc bag,
• safety glasses,
• rubber gloves,
• camera.

Experimental Procedure

1. Do your background research so that you are knowledgeable about the terms, concepts, and questions above. In particular, you should learn about the different fiber types used in fabrics, and about fiber-reactive dye chemistry.
2. Use your background research to make predictions about how well different fabric types will be dyed with fiber-reactive dyes.
3. Test your predictions by selecting several different fabric types (try at least 5) and then dyeing samples of each type.
4. Use permanent marker to label each of the fabric samples with its fabric type.
5. Prewash and air dry the fabric samples. This removes any residual chemicals on the fabrics from the fabric manufacturing process (e.g., sizing, preservatives, or oils) that might interfere with the dye process.
6. Cut each fabric sample into five equal squares, about 9 cm × 9 cm each.
7. Use permanent marker to label the back of each square with the fabric type.
8. Here is one method for dyeing fabric from a teacher with lots of experience (Craft, date unknown). With this method and the sizes and quantities suggested, you should be able to dye all of your samples together at one time. The method calls for a special detergent called "Synthrapol." It's a mild detergent, formulated for removing excess dye particles from freshly-dyed fabric. If you can't find it, don't worry. Ordinary laundry detergent will work fine for the purposes of this project.
   
   Safety Note: Soda ash is caustic. Eye protection and gloves are recommended when mixing soda ash solution, and when rinsing the fabric samples after dyeing.
   
   1. "Mix 2 teaspoons of powdered dye, 1 tablespoon of salt, and 1 cup of warm water in a clean glass jar. This forms a very concentrated liquid dye solution. Some colors (such as yellow) may need double or triple the amount of powdered dye to make the solutions "equally" concentrated, however, I usually don't worry about this.
   2. "Wet 1/2 yard of fabric and put in a one gallon plastic baggie. Then do one of the following:
      • "Mix one or more colors of dye concentrate with about 1/2 cup of water and pour into the baggie with the fabric.
      • "Pour one or more colors of dye concentrate directly onto the fabric.
      • "Pour 1/2 cup water into the baggie and then pour on one or more colors of dye concentrate.
   3. "Zip the baggie closed (with as little air as possible inside) and either let sit or smoosh the fabric around inside to move the dye through the fibers. Let the fabric sit or pick it up and smoosh it occasionally.
   4. "Mix a solution of 2 tablespoons of soda ash to 1 quart of warm water.
   5. "After 5–20 minutes, add 1/2 cup or so of the soda ash solution to the plastic baggie. Close the bag and smoosh everything around. At this point there is a chemical reaction taking place on your fabric. The soda ash reacts with the dye and bonds to the fibers. This reaction is mostly spent after one hour. Though some people feel waiting longer produces better results, there is usually little difference.
   6. "After an hour, dump the contents of the bag into a sink and rinse the fabric until the water runs clear. Do a final wash using Synthrapol. Ann Johnson recommends only draining the fabric in the sink and putting it directly into the washing machine. She agitates the fabric for only 2–4 minutes, then drains the water and spins it out. She does this a couple of times then does a full wash using Synthrapol.
   7. "Dry fabric in the dryer until damp dry and iron." (Craft, date unknown)
9. Compare the colors of the different fabric samples. Can you describe your observations in terms of hue, saturation, and brightness? Hint: use the Java applet from the Bibliography (Zarathustra, 1998) and adjust the sliders for hue, saturation and brightness until the color swatch on your monitor matches your fabric sample.
10. Take pictures of different samples side-by-side for your display board.
11. How do your results compare to your predictions for each fabric type?

Variations

• Some methods suggest pre-soaking the fabric in sodium carbonate solution, and then adding dye (the reverse of the Experimental Procedure, above). Does the order of these steps make a difference in the color of the dyed fabric? Design an experiment to find out.
• You've seen how blue jeans fade gradually over time. There are many different experiments related to fading that you could try. For example:
  • Do all fabrics fade equally with washing? Set aside one sample of each fabric type from your dyeing experiment. Then wash the other samples multiple times, comparing with the original sample after each washing. You can even take this further: Does the wash temperature make a difference? Does dye color make a difference?
  • Do all fabrics fade equally with exposure to sunlight? Set aside one sample of each fabric type from your dyeing experiment. Then expose the other samples to sunlight for different lengths of time (keep track in your lab notebook). Compare the sun-exposed samples to each other and to the original (unexposed) samples.

• For more science project ideas in this area of science, see Chemistry Project Ideas

Credits

Sources

This project is based on:

• Schisler, L.J., 2003. "Which Fabric Type Bonds Best with Fiber Reactive Dyes?" California State Science Fair Abstract [accessed October 18, 2006] http://www.usc.edu/CSSF/History/2004/Projects/J1139.pdf.

Last edit date: 2006-11-03 16:00:00