Composition and use thereof for ink jet printing

Details Composition and use thereof for ink jet printing Composition and use thereof for ink jet printing

2001-01-29

2003-12-02

Boyer, Charles (Department: 1751)

Bleaching and dyeing; fluid treatment and chemical modification

Chemical modification of textiles or fibers or products thereof

Cellulose fibers

C008S115510, C008S115600, C008S181000, C008S445000, C008S455000, C008S480000, C008S485000, C008S495000, C008S542000, C008S543000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06656228

ABSTRACT:

The present invention relates to a composition suitable for application to polyamide textile materials, to a polyamide textile material treated with the composition, to an ink jet printing method, and to a polyamide textile material coloured using the method.
The printing of textiles is conventionally carried out by screen or roller printing using gravure engraved cylinders. The design to be printed has to be engraved on to a cylinder and each individual colour in a design requires the application of a separate screen with a colour pre-mixed to the required shade. This is a long and slow process and it can take many months for a textile design to appear as a printed textile. Consequently, there is a demand for a printing process which enables new designs to be printed onto a textile quickly for proofing purposes and for small production runs. Ink jet printing of textiles offers the potential to transfer a design to a textile much faster than traditional textile printing methods.
The prints prepared using ink jet printing are required to meet many demanding criteria, for example the prints are preferably bright, have a high water-fastness and good light-fastness. In addition, the ink jet printing process is preferably capable of producing prints which exhibit a colour gamut comparable to that obtained using conventional printing methods.
PCT application no. GB97/03423 discloses a method of ink jet printing wherein the colour gamut achievable using ink jet printing onto, inter alia, cellulosic textiles is increased by using up to eight reactive dyes.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,645,631 discloses a ink jet printing using inks containing a reactive dye onto a cellulosic material which has a specific fibre length and moisture regain.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,698,478 discloses ink jet printing using inks containing a reactive dye onto a cellulosic textile material containing 0.1 to 50% by weight of a cationic substance, 0.01 to 5% by weight of an alkaline substance and 0.01 to 20% by weight of the ammonium salt of a polyvalent acid.
The above ink jet printing methods fix the dyes by means of a covalent bond formed between cellulosic textiles and reactive group(s) present in the dyes by heating the printed textile under alkaline conditions.
We have found that when reactive dyes are applied to polyamide textiles, especially silk, using ink jet printing followed by fixing the dyes by heating under alkaline conditions, the resulting prints are often dull and exhibit a poor colour gamut compared to prints obtained using conventional printing techniques.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,594,485 discloses ink jet printing of acid dyes onto silk wherein the silk has a specified moisture content. However, the colour gamut available through ink jet printing of acid dyes is very limited compared to that obtained using conventional printing methods.
There is, therefore, a need for an ink jet printing method which provides prints on polyamide textiles which exhibit a brightness and colour gamut comparable to that obtained by printing such materials using conventional printing techniques.
We have found that the brightness and colour gamut of prints obtained by ink jet printing with inks containing various classes of anionic dyes onto a polyamide textile material is improved by applying a pre-treatment composition to the polyamide material.
According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a first composition comprising:
(a) a cationic substance;
(b) an acid generator; and
(c) an alkyl or a hydroxyalkyl substituted starch.
Preferably the composition is free from alkaline materials.
Preferably the composition comprises:
from 0.5 to 99.5, more preferably from 5 to 80 and especially from 10 to 80 parts of component (a);
from 0.1 to 60, more preferably from 0.5 to 50 and especially from 2 to 45 parts of component (b);
from 0.1 to 99.5, more preferably from 0.5 to 80 and especially from 8 to 70 parts of component (c);
wherein all parts are by weight and the sum of the parts of components (a)+(b)+(c)=100.
The cationic substance is preferably a cationic polymer or a quaternary ammonium compound.
Preferred cationic polymers are polymers which carry a quaternary ammonium group. The cationic polymer is preferably a copolymer formed by polymerising a monomer containing a quaternary ammonium salt, with one or more monomers selected from vinyl pyrrolidone, acrylamide, allylamine and ethyleneimine.
Especially preferred cationic polymers are:
(a) cationic polyethylenimines;
(b) cationic polymers as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,698,478, cols. 4 to 6, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference thereto; and
(c) dicyanamide/phenol—formaldehyde/ammonium chloride condensate, for example the 50% aqueous solution available as MATEXIL™ FC-PN from ICI Limited.
Preferred quaternary ammonium compounds are of the Formula (1):
wherein:
R
1
, R
2
and R
3
are each independently selected from H, optionally substituted C
1-20
-alkyl and optionally substituted C
2-20
-alkenyl; R
4
is optionally substituted C
1-20
-alkyl or optionally substituted C
2-20
-alkenyl; and X
−
is an anion.
Preferably R
1
and R
2
are each independently selected from C
1-20
-alkyl or C
2-20
-alkenyl, more preferably C
1-4
-alkyl, especially methyl.
R
3
and R
4
are preferably each independently C
5-20
-alkyl or C
5-20
-alkenyl, especially C
16-20
-alkyl or C
16-20
-alkenyl and more especially C
18
-alkyl.
When any of the groups R
1
, R
2
, R
3
or R
4
is alkyl or alkenyl it may be branched or, preferably, straight chain.
Preferred alkyl groups represented by R
1
, R
2
, R
3
and R
4
are of formula —(CH
2
)
n
CH
3
wherein n has a value of from 0 to 19.
It is preferred that R
3
and R
4
are each independently of Formula —(CH
2
)
n
CH
3
wherein n is from 9 to 19, especially 15 to 19, more especially 17.
Preferably R
1
and R
2
are identical. In one preferred embodiment R
2
, R
3
and R
4
are identical.
The nature of the anion represented by X
−
is not believed to be critical. However, preferred anions include ½ (SO
4
2−
) and halide, and especially Cl
−
.
The compounds of Formula (1) preferably contain 30 or more, more preferably 30 to 50, especially 32 to 48 and more especially 36 to 40 carbon atoms.
Preferred compounds of Formula (1) include tetraoctylammonium salts, tridecyl ammonium salts, tridodecylammonium salts, tetradecylammonium salts, tridecylmethyl ammonium salts, tridodecylmethylammonium salts, distearyldiethylammonium salts, distearyldipropylammonium salts, more preferably distearyldimethylammonium salts, and especially the preceding quaternary ammonium compounds with a chloride, sulphate or bromide anion. An especially preferred compound of Formula (1) is distearyl dimethylammonium chloride.
Component (a) of the composition is preferably a quaternary ammonium compound because we have found that the presence of such a compound in the composition gives prints which exhibit a very high colour yield.
The acid generator (component (b)) is preferably an organic or inorganic acid, and more preferably an organic acid, or a salt thereof. The organic acid may be monobasic or polybasic. It is especially preferred that the acid generator is an organic polybasic acid, or a salt thereof.
Preferred organic monobasic acids comprise an aromatic or aliphatic group substituted with a group selected from —COOH, —PO
3
H
2
and —SO
3
H, especially —COOH. Preferred aliphatic monobasic acids comprise an optionally substituted alkyl group which carries an acid group, preferably a —COOH group. The alkyl group is preferably C
1-12
-alkyl, and more preferably C
1-6
-alkyl. When the aliphatic monobasic acid is substituted the substituent(s) is/are preferably selected from —OH and —NH
2
. Examples of preferred aliphatic monobasic acids include acetic acid, propionic acid, butyric acid, isobutyric acid, pentanoic acid, 2,2-dimethylpropanoic acid, glycolic acid, lactic acid and glyceric acid.
Preferred aromatic monobasic acids comprise an aromatic group substituted with —COOH, —SO
3
H or —PO
3
H
2
, more preferabl

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