A novel nanoscale henna natural dye with particle size less than 100 nm were successfully prepared by using ultrasonic stirrer. Henna natural dye as ecofriendly dye was studied to clarify the impact of nature of nano-size color particles on size, shape, and particle distribution of the natural dye. The work was extended to study the K/S and overall color fastness properties of the printed natural fabrics (wool, silk and cotton) in presence and absence of mordant. Results showed that the K/S values of nano scale samples acquire higher values when compared to that of the original samples, irrespective of the nature of the fabric used. Mordant for example Alum that incorporated with original henna can be omitted, and substituted by nano-henna without mordant on printing silk and cotton fabrics. Results also shows that the pre-mordanting acquired K/S values higher than the simultaneous mordanting irrespective of the kind of fabric used, or dye particles size used, or henna concentrations. While on using tannic acid as a mordant, color fastness to rubbing, and perspiration properties of nano dye is found to be better than that of the original.

Three different metal oxides namely TiO2 , MgO and ZnO in the nano particle size (NPs)form were prepared through chemical methods and characterized by transmission electron microscope (TEM) to evaluate its particle size and size distribution. The cotton and viscose fabrics were first pre-treated separately with the NPs metal oxides and then printed with pastes containing reactive and/or natural dyes. The colour strength (K/S) of pre-treated fabrics with nanoparticles were measured and compared with the untreated one. The existence of NPs on the fabrics during printing process highly increase the K/S of the printed goods irrespective of the nature of the colour or the kind of fabrics to be print. However, the value of the K/S of the printed goods depends on: (a) the nature of the metal oxide, (2) its concentration, (c) the nature of the colour, and (d) the nature of the printed fabric. Besides the NPs-treatment leads to produce a coloured fabrics with excellent antibacterial and very good UV protection properties and very good fastness properties.