Development of self-curable hybrid pigment inks by miniemulsion polymerization for inkjet printing of cotton fabrics

• Incorporation of pigment into binder by miniemulsion polymerization.
• Enhanced colloidal stability of pigments by polymer encapsulation.
• Successful application in ink jet textile printing.

In our work, organic pigments were encapsulated with a polymer latex layer to reduce the tendency for pigment agglomeration and improve their stability in aqueous ink dispersions. Such polymer-encapsulated pigments then were applied in inkjet printing without addition of separate binder additives, thereby reducing the risk of unfavorable interactions between the separate latex and pigment particles. We studied systematically the encapsulation of C.I. Pigment red 112 by miniemulsion polymerization of pigment/butyl acrylate-co-methyl methacrylate (BA-MMA) or styrene-co-butyl acrylate (St-BA) copolymers. The ratio of monomer to pigment was varied to find optimum conditions for the preparation of self-curable hybrid pigment inks for the textile inkjet printing application. Inkjet printing of cotton fabrics with different encapsulated and non-encapsulated pigment colors shows that the encapsulated pigment/polymer latex particles yield equally good values in terms of color strength, rubbing and washing fastness in comparison to non-encapsulated conventional inks, but avoiding problems of clogging and colloidal instability.

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