Evaluating the Effect of Reactive Dye Structure and Penetrant Type on the Fastness of Ink-Jet Prints

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of reactive dye structure and the type of penetrant in ink formulation on different kinds of paper ink-jet printing. Six different types of paper with different textures or gloss and the same grammage were printed upon with three commercial reactive dyes, i.e. C.I. Reactive Blue 49 (Ink 1, 4), C.I. Reactive Blue 21 (Ink 2, Ink 5) and C.I. Reactive Blue 19 (Ink 3, Ink 6), which are based on different reactive groups, chromophores and possess different numbers of anionic groups. Ethylene glycol mono butyl ether (Ink1 to Ink 3) and Ethylene glycol di-butyl ether (Ink 4 to Ink6) were used in ink formulation as penetrants. Optical density, colorimetric properties, wash and light fastness of the printed papers were evaluated. The results indicated that the printed subjects with Ink 1 to Ink 3 had less optical density, high dye penetration and good wash fastness properties compared to Ink 4 to Ink 6. Ink 2 and Ink 5 showed excellent wash and light fastness on the most of the substrates compared to other inks. A higher optical density of printed images is obtained by using glossy substrates.