Preparation of Multi-purpose Nano Ink-jet Printed Fabric by Pretreating Cotton Fabric with Carboxylated Styrene-Butadiene Latex

Abstract

Flexible electronic printing devices have drawn significant attention due to the economic approach. Cotton fabric’s porosity and high surface roughness avoid electrically conductive printed patterns on the fabrics. In this study, the cotton fabric was pretreated with carboxylated styrene-butadiene latex (XSBL) with the pad-dry-cure process for in situ solution deposition of silver free particles inkjet ink. The pretreating process did not have an adverse effect on thermal behavior and colorimetric properties and improved the fabric’s crease recovery angle and hydrophobicity. The pretreated and untreated fabrics were printed through the HP Deskjet inkjet printer with one, five, and ten printing layers of formulated water-based silver free-particles ink for comparison. XRD analysis illustrated the crystal structure of silver nanoparticles on the printed pretreated cotton fabric. FE-SEM and EDS analysis indicated that the presence of silver nanoparticles increased by increasing the number of printing runs. Repetition printing sequences increased average particle size, growing grain size (52 nm to 90 nm). It was determined that the presence of XSBL on the fabric surface provides a suitable structure, with resistance (25 ohms) and antibacterial activity against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria for use in multi-purpose inkjet printing cotton fabric. The printed pretreated fabrics exhibited appropriate washing fastness properties due to the cross-linked structure between free carboxylic groups of XSBL resin and hydroxyl groups of cellulose. It is the first time using an economical polymer layer on cotton fabrics to provide robust, flexible electronic inkjet printed fabric with great potential for commercial mass production © This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License