Use of highly-stable and covalently bonded polymer colorant on binder-free pigment printing of citric acid treated cotton fabric

Organic pigments with non-polar groups are insoluble in water and most organic solvents and therefore require a dispersion process before application. Besides, since there is no affinity between fabrics and pigments, binders must be added to the printing paste, resulting in the stiff hand feel and poor rubbing fastness of printed fabrics. In this paper, a novel polymer colorant (PGMA-NH-X-3B) with high-stability and reactivity was fabricated and it was further applied to binder-free pigment printing of citric acid treated cotton fabric. The structure of PGMA-NH-X-3B was characterized by FT-IR, EDS, XRD, and SEM. The prepared PGMA-NH-X-3B powders can be easily dispersed in water and the dispersion exhibited excellent storage stability with the particle size change of 3.80% for 30 days. FT-IR, XPS, and SEM demonstrated that the covalent bonding and film formation are the dual-action mechanisms for the PGMA-NH-X-3B printed onto the citric acid treated cotton fabric. Finally, the tests of hand feel and fastness showed that PGMA-NH-X-3B printed fabrics had a soft hand feel and good color fastness as compared with the conventional pigment printings with a large number of binders. [GRAPHICS] .

Automated summary

A novel polymer colorant PGMA-NH-X-3B was successfully fabricated and applied to binder-free pigment printing. The colorant exhibited good dispersibility in water, high stability, and superior printing performance compared to traditional pigment printings with binders.