Development of ecofriendly binders for pigment printing of all types of textile fabrics

For many years, improving the quality of pigment prints was the main goal in product development. Lately, economic, environmental and toxicological considerations have become more important. Using more environmentally friendly pigment preparations and auxiliary products, for example to reduce or to eliminate formaldehyde on the fabric, is currently one of the major concerns in the textile printing industry. The curable oligomers take the place of the organic solvents and work as the binder of pigments. Some novel prepared aqueous binder of polyurethane acrylate based on either polyethylene glycol or glycerol ethoxylate-co-propoxylate having zero volatile organic compounds was used for preparing printing paste for screen printing of all types of textile fabrics using pigment dyes. The highest color strength is obtained and fastness properties range between good and excellent for samples printed using polyurethane acrylate based on glycerol ethoxylate-co-propoxylate as a binder, this is true irrespective of the type of fabric used. While lower value of color strength is obtained for samples printed using Ebecryl 2002 as a commercial binder, and polyurethane acrylate based on PEG(2000) is better than polyurethane acrylate based on PEG(1000 + 2000), unless in case of screen printed wool, the inverse is true. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.