Ink-Jet Printing of Cotton with Cationic Reactive Dye Based Inks

The current commercial application of ink-jet reactive inks for cotton fabrics has been through pre-treating with pad liquor prior to printing. In this study, an effort has made to provide a single phase ink-jet printing process for printing cotton fabric using the novel cationic reactive dye in ink’s formulation. Cotton fabric was printed with the novel cationic reactive dye and commercial anionic reactive dyes. Color yield and absorbed dye fixations of the printed cotton were analysed at different pH values. The results indicated that printed untreated cotton fabric with cationic reactive dye based ink at optimum pH exhibited higher level of reactive dye fixation than commercial anionic reactive dye based inks on alkali pre-treated cotton fabrics. All reactive dye based inks are demonstrating excellent washing and dry/wet crocking color fastness. The light fastness of each reactive dye based ink fixed to cotton fabrics was moderate.