Science, Art, and Sustainability: How To Tie-Dye Cotton With Acorns and Rust

Tie-dyeing is a fun pastime that may add colorful patterns to garments such as t-shirts. Although store-bought tie-dye kits are available, nature supplies colours that may be derived from objects found in one's own garden, such as acorns and rust.

Researchers offer a "green" approach for tie-dying cotton with renewable materials and wastes in the Journal of Chemical Education of the American Chemical Society, which undergraduate students may readily accomplish with minimal supervision. Science, art, and sustainability are all intertwined in this exercise.

Natural materials have been used as dyes and mordants, which are chemicals that help bind compounds to fibers, for thousands of years. Acorn tannins may also bind to orange-colored iron mordant, resulting in a dark blue or even black tint on textiles.

Julian Silverman and his colleagues sought to demonstrate how these natural dyes may be utilized in tie-dyeing to create distinctive designs on cotton napkins in white, brown, orange, and bluish-black colors. The final designs were determined by the sequence in which the napkins were wrapped in rubber bands and steeped in an acorn dye bath then dipped in a rust and vinegar solution.

Despite the fact that all of the dyeing solutions are safe to flush, the researchers claim that using gloves, lab coats, and goggles will prevent the dyes from coloring skin or other clothes.