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Towards UV-curable inkjet printing of biodegradable poly (lactic acid) fabrics

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Abstract

There has been growing interest in using poly (lactic acid) (PLA) fibres because of its natural-based origin and good biodegradability; however, its adoption within the textile industry has been limited to lower temperature wet and dry processing, because of its relatively lower glass transition temperature (T g) and melting point (T m). Here we report for the first time inkjet printing of heat-sensitive PLA fabrics using ambient temperature UV-curable inks as a way of overcoming the potential degradation at higher temperature. The UV cured inkjet printed PLA fabrics exhibited good performance characteristics such as acceptable colour fastness, relatively high colour strength, K/S, and comparable colour difference, ΔE, after washing to the thermally cured ink system, without affecting the physical and mechanical properties of the fabrics. In contrast thermally cured inkjet printed PLA fabrics exhibited significantly reduced bursting strength and stiffer handle attributed to the thermal degradation and lower fibre flexibility imparted at the higher temperature. Investigation of the radiation-cured printing approach indicates UV-curable inkjet printing may be considered as an alternative to conventional thermally cured pigment printing of heat-sensitive biodegradable PLA-based fabrics.

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Acknowledgements

The authors kindly acknowledge the support of The University of Manchester Research Impact Scholarship for the PhD study of first author and also like to thank Dr Andy Hancock, Technical Director, Mexar Inkjet Solutions and Hybrid UK for the help with inkjet pigment printing and UV-curable inkjet printing, respectively.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK

    Mohammad Nazmul Karim

  2. School of Chemistry, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK

    Shaila Afroj & Stephen G. Yeates

  3. School of Design, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK

    Muriel Rigout & Chris Carr

Authors
  1. Mohammad Nazmul Karim
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  2. Shaila Afroj
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  3. Muriel Rigout
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  4. Stephen G. Yeates
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  5. Chris Carr
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Correspondence to Mohammad Nazmul Karim.

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Karim, M.N., Afroj, S., Rigout, M. et al. Towards UV-curable inkjet printing of biodegradable poly (lactic acid) fabrics. J Mater Sci 50, 4576–4585 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-015-9006-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-015-9006-0

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