Ink jet printing of bio-treated linen, polyester fabrics and their blend

• Brewer's yeast filtrate and cellulase enzymes were used to enhance the ink jet printing.
• Nature cellulosic fabric linen, polyester and their 50/50 blend were used.
• Morphology of the biotreated fabrics was illustrated using scanning electron microscope.
• The optimum conditions to obtain higher K/S were obtained.

Cellulosic fabrics were surface modified using Brewer's yeast filtrate and cellulase enzymes (Valumax A828, Valumax A356) to enhance its affinity to ink jet printing. The effect of enzymes on the surface structure and morphology of the cellulosic fabrics used has been illustrated using scanning electron microscope. Related test as tensile strength have been measured. The bio-treated cellulosic fabrics were digitally printed and the colour strength (K/S) and % increase in K/S were measured. Effect of different conditions (enzyme concentration, temperature and time) was investigated to obtain the optimum condition of each enzyme for each fabric that or which was indicated by higher colour strength. Results show a noticeable increase in the K/S especially for cellulosic linen and its blend compared to the standard samples. The optimum conditions to obtain the higher K/S by using Brewer's yeast filtrate and the other two cellulase enzymes in the pre-treatment of ink jet samples were obtained.