STUDI KOMPARASI EFEKTIVITAS PENGGUNAAN BEBERAPA SENYAWA NATRIUM SEBAGAI ZAT BANTU DALAM PROSES PELEPASAN MALAM PADA BATIK TULIS

The use of sodium compounds are sodium carbonate, sodium silicate, sodium chloride and sodium hydroxide as auxiliary agent in the malam releasing process in batik was investigated. This study aims to determine the effectiveness of these sodium compounds for the malam releasing process and know the factors that influence the effectiveness of the auxiliary in the process. This study used an experimental method with 5 treatments and 3 repetition that treatment A (without auxiliray agent), B (sodium carbonate), C (sodium silicate), D (sodium chloride), and E (sodium hydroxide). The level of effectiveness is measured by the percentage of the malam release of the cotton fabric. The testing process is done by successively making designs on cotton fabric, then the malam sticking process, the coloring process, and the malam releasing process. The malam releasing process do with each using auxiliary agent sodium carbonate, sodium silicate, sodium chloride, sodium hydroxide and one sample without auxiliary substances are used as controls. The results showed that the use of auxiliary from sodium compounds can simplify the malam releasing process. Sodium compounds that most effective to be used in the malam releasing process was sodium silicate followed by sodium carbonate, sodium chloride, and sodium hydroxide. The most effective in the malam releasing process in batik cotton fabric was sodium silicate. This was because the amount of sodium unsure in the sodium silicate compounds most numerous and the bonding of sodium and silicate was weakest among other sodium compounds used in this study.