doi: 10.1111/j.1478-4408.2007.00094.

Enhancing textile ink-jet printing with

chitosan
C W M Yuen, S K A Ku, C W Kan* and P S R Choi
Institute of Textiles and Clothing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom,
Kowloon, Hong Kong 852, China
Email: kan.chi.wai@inet.polyu.edu.hk

Received: 2 February 2007; Accepted: 18 May 2007

Following on from previous research, the possibility of using chitosan in preparing the pretreatment print
paste for textile ink-jet printing was investigated but the final colour was not as good as expected. In this
study, chitosan was applied separately on cotton fabric for ink-jet printing. A two-bath method was
proposed and it was confirmed that a better colour yield was achieved with this method. However, the
use of chitosan reduced the tensile strength of the ink-jet printed fabric slightly.

Introduction inch (40 s) and 72 picks/inch (40 s) was used in this

There has been an increasing interest in the application
of ink-jet printing for textile applications recently. The
technique of ink-jet printing offers benefits such as speed,
flexibility, creativity, cleanliness, competitiveness and
ecofriendliness [1–3]. However, because of the requirement
of purity and the specific conductivity requirements for
ink-jet printing [4–7], none of the conventional printing
chemicals such as alkali, urea and sodium alginate (as a
thickener) can be directly incorporated into the ink
formulation and therefore pretreatment print paste should
be prepared for textile ink-jet printing.
In our previous research [8], an in-depth investigation
was carried out to investigate the effect of different
chemicals and process conditions on the final colour
yield of ink-jet printed cotton fabric. Sodium alginate was
found to be an important thickener commonly used to
prepare the pretreatment print paste for digital ink-jet
printing owing to its ready solubility and excellent
stability even after high-temperature fixation treatments
[8]. On the other hand, similar to sodium alginate,
chitosan is also widely used as a novel biomaterial. As
natural polymers, sodium alginate and chitosan are
biocompatible, biodegradable and non-toxic [9]. Previous
research reported that chitosan could be possibly used as
a replacement for sodium alginate in the pretreatment
print paste because the extent of interaction of sodium
alginate with reactive dyes is very small [10]. However,
during the preparation of chitosan, acetic acid is used;
neutralisation may occur between the acid in the chitosan
solution and the alkali, i.e. sodium bicarbonate, in the
pretreatment print paste resulting in reduction of final
colour yield when compared with pretreatment print
paste using sodium alginate as a thickener [10].
Therefore, the aim of this study was to propose a method
to minimise the neutralisation effect between the chitosan
solution and sodium bicarbonate.
Experimental
Fabric
100% singed, desized, scoured and bleached cotton
plain weave fabric of 136 g/m2 with 133 ends/
study.
Preparation of pretreatment print paste
Chitosan (R–NH2; practical grade) in solid form was
supplied by Sigma Co. (USA). A stock chitosan solution
with medium viscosity (ca. 150 mPas) was prepared by
dissolving 5 g of chitosan completely into 500 ml of 10%
acetic acid with constant stirring. The stock solution
was then filtered to remove any suspended impurities.
The pretreatment print paste with chitosan as thickener
was prepared by mixing 40 ml of the stock chitosan
solution, 10 g of urea, 8 g of sodium bicarbonate and
finally made up to a final weight of 150 g with
deionised water [10]. A control pretreatment print paste
was prepared, which contained 150 g sodium alginate
(the amount of 150 g was obtained from a stock sodium
alginate solution by dissolving 50 g sodium alginate with
950 ml deionised water), 10 g urea and 8 g sodium
bicarbonate [8].
Fabric pretreatment
The pretreatment print paste was padded onto the fabric
using a padding machine (Labortex Co. Ltd, Taiwan) with
a pressure of 2.6 kg/m2 and padding speed of 2.5 rpm to
give a wet pick-up of 80%. The chitosan-treated fabrics
were completely dried in an oven at 80 C and then
cured at 170 C for 1.5 min while the control fabric was
completely dried in the oven at 80 C. All the pretreated
fabrics were conditioned at 20 C with relative humidity
of 65% for 24 h before ink-jet printing.
Two-bath method
To evaluate the effect of neutralisation during the mixing
of chitosan solution and sodium bicarbonate in the
pretreatment print paste preparation process, a two-bath
method was proposed which included (i) an acidic bath
and (ii) an alkali bath. In the acidic bath, the fabrics were
first soaked for 2–3 min in the stock chitosan solution
and then padded uniformly through a padding machine
with a final wet pick-up of 80%. Secondly, the padded
fabrics were cured at 170 C for 1.5 min. The fabrics were

ª 2007 The Authors. Journal compilation ª 2007 Society of Dyers and Colourists, Color. Technol., 123, 267–270 267
Yuen et al. Enhancing textile ink-jet printing
then washed with running deionised water for 5 min at
room temperature after curing.
After the chitosan treatment with acidic bath method,
the fabrics were treated with an alkali bath. In the alkali
bath, a pretreatment paste containing 10 g urea and 8 g
sodium bicarbonate in 150 g deionised water was
prepared and this pretreatment paste was padded onto
the chitosan pretreated fabrics by means of padding
machine until a wet pick-up of 80% was achieved. The
two-bath method treated fabrics were then dried in an
oven with 80 C and subsequently conditioned at 20 C
with relative humidity of 65% for 24 h before ink-jet
printing.
Ink-jet printing and post-treatment
The model of ink-jet printer used was a Mimaki Tx2-1600
(Mimaki Engineering Co., Ltd, Japan), which was a
piezoelectric drop-on-demand machine. Four commer-
cially available ink-jet inks with colours cyan (C), magenta
(M), yellow (Y) and black (K) [supplied by TianLi Modern
Office Articles (Shanghai, China) Co., Ltd] were used
directly without further purification. The chemical
constitution of the four different colours is shown in
Table 1 [11].
A square of 80 · 80 mm was printed for each single
colour with 360 · 360 dpi for easy comparison. After
ink-jet printing, the printed fabrics were air dried and
then steamed at 110 C for colour fixation. The steamed
fabrics were finally washed in 500 ml 10 g/l nonionic
detergent continuously until all the unreacted dyes and
chemicals were removed as a clear detergent solution
was observed.
Colour yield measurement
The printed fabrics were conditioned before the colour
yield measurement using a Macbeth Colour Eye 7000A
Spectrophotometer (Macbeth, Australia). The condition of
measurement was set under specular excluded with large
aperture. The fabric was folded twice to ensure opacity
and then measured in both warp and weft directions. The
measured results were finally averaged.
The colour yield, expressed as K/S values ranging from
wavelengths 400 to 700 nm with 20 nm interval within
the visible spectrum was calculated. The K/S values were
calculated according to Eqn 1:
K =S ¼ ð1  RÞ2 =2R ð1Þ
where K is the absorption coefficient, depending on the
concentration of colorant, S is the scattering coefficient,
caused by the dyed substrate and R is the reflectance
of the coloured sample. The higher the K/S value, the
better the colour yield will be.
Table 1 Chemical constitution of the four different colours [11]
Colour Chromophores Reacting system
Cyan Anthraquinone Triazine
Magenta Azo Vinyl sulphone
Yellow Azo Vinyl sulphone
Black Azo Vinyl sulphone
268 ª 2007 The Authors. Journal compilation ª 2007 Society of Dyers and Colourists, Color. Technol., 123, 267–270
Colour fastness of the fabrics
The colour fastness properties of the ink-jet printed
fabrics to laundering and crocking were assessed by
AATCC Test methods 61-2001 and 8-2001, respectively.
Outline sharpness measurement
To compare the outline sharpness of the prints, the width
of the printed pattern in both warp and weft directions
was measured using an optical light microscope (Nikon
Optiplot-pol, USA) with a magnification of 400·.
Determination of tensile strength of printed fabric
The tensile properties of the ink-jet printed fabrics were
measured according to the ASTM D5034-1995 using an
Instron 4411 Tensile Tester (Instron, USA).
Test of anti-bacterial effect
The anti-bacterial effects of the ink-jet printed fabrics
were quantitatively evaluated using the AATCC Test
Method 100-1993 with Eqn 2:
R ð%Þ ¼ ðB  ABÞ=B  100 ð2Þ
where R is the percentage reduction ratio, A is the
number of bacteria recovered from the inoculated treated
test specimen swatches in a jar incubated over the
desired contact period and B is the number of bacteria
recovered from the inoculated treated test specimen
swatches in the jar immediately after inoculation.
Results and Discussion
Colour yield of the ink-jet printed fabrics
Figure 1 shows the colour yields of the four different
colours of the ink-jet printed fabrics under different types
of treatments. It was noted that the two-bath method
treated fabrics had better colour yield when compared
with the chitosan-treated and the control fabrics. For
the chitosan-treated fabrics, although the chitosan was
confirmed to have the possibility for replacing sodium
alginate as thickener for ink-jet printing, the colour yield
achieved was only 80% when compared with that in the
control fabric. This reduction in the colour yield may be
300
Control fabric
250
Chitosan-treated fabric
Two-bath treated fabric
200
Colour yield
150
100
50
0
Cyan Magenta Yellow Black
Colour
Figure 1 Colour yield of the different ink-jet printed fabrics

because of the neutralisation effect between the chitosan
and sodium bicarbonate in the pretreatment print paste.
The neutralisation effect may reduce the amount of
sodium bicarbonate in the pretreatment paste and the
amount of the neutralisation product, i.e. water, will
be increased. Therefore, during the fixing process, the
decreased amount of sodium bicarbonate may reduce
the fixation of reactive dyes with the fibre while the
increased amount of water may impose a higher risk of
reactive dye hydrolysis and hence reduce the colour
yield. With the proposed two-bath method, it was
illustrated in Figure 1 that the colour yield of the two-
bath method-treated fabrics is better than that of
chitosan-treated and control fabric. Therefore, it could be
concluded that the neutralisation effect occurred inside
the pretreatment print paste and hence reduced the ink-
jet printing effectiveness.
When chitosan was applied on the cotton fabric, it is
believed that the amino group present in chitosan could
take up a proton from the slightly acidic bath and so form
NHþ 3 . These groups being electropositive in nature could
facilitate the transfer of the negatively charged dye anion
from the bath onto the fabric and thereby improve
exhaustion [12].
Colour fastness of the ink-jet printed fabrics
The colour fastness grading of the ink-jet printed fabrics
is summarised in Table 2 and it is noted that both the
two-bath method-treated fabric and chitosan-treated
cotton fabric had similar colour fastness properties,
which are better than those of the control fabric with an
improvement of at least half a grade.
The improvement in the colour fastness of the two-bath
method-treated and chitosan-treated fabrics might be
associated with the introduction of primary amino groups
into the cellulosic fibre structure. Most probably after
Table 2 Colour fastness results of the different ink-jet printed fabrics
Washing (C/M/Y/K)
Sample Staininga
Control fabric 4/4/4/4
Chitosan-treated fabric 4–5/4–5/4–5/4–5
Two-bath method-treated fabric 4–5/4–5/4–5/4–5
a Each of the four colours gave the same result on the multifibre fabric and so only one value is given
Table 3 Outline sharpness of ink-jet printed fabric
Colour
Cyan Magenta
Sample Warp (mm) Weft (mm) Warp (mm) Weft (mm) Warp (mm) Weft (mm) Warp (mm) Weft (mm)
Control fabric 82 81 82
Chitosan-treated fabric 81 80 81
Two-bath method-treated fabric 81 80 81
ª 2007 The Authors. Journal compilation ª 2007 Society of Dyers and Colourists, Color. Technol., 123, 267–270
Yuen et al. Enhancing textile ink-jet printing
these groups were deposited in the crevices between the
fibres, they might impart a cationic surface, which
attracted the oppositely charged reactive dye anions [13].
Although both two-bath method-treated and chitosan-
treated fabrics had similar colour fastness properties, the
colour yield of printed fabrics obtained from two-bath
method is better than that of chitosan-treated fabrics.
Outline sharpness of the ink-jet printed fabric
The outline sharpness of the ink-jet printed pattern was
measured by optical analysis method and the results are
shown in Table 3.
For both the control and chitosan containing fabrics,
the ink-jet printed patterns of four different colours in the
warp direction were thicker than those in the weft
direction. This might be due to the differential wicking
effect caused by the warp and weft yarns. When
considering the width of the printed pattern, the patterns
printed on the chitosan containing fabrics were narrower
than the control fabric in both warp and weft directions.
The result confirmed that chitosan treatment could
enhance the outline sharpness of the prints as a result of
strong ionic attraction between cationic cotton and
anionic reactive inks. When compared, both the two-bath
method-treated and the chitosan-treated cotton fabrics
had the same outline sharpness.
Determination of tensile strength of printed fabric
The tensile strength of the differently treated cotton
fabrics, as reflected by the breaking load, is shown in
Table 4. Drops in breaking load with ca. 0.8% and 2% (in
both warp and weft directions) were noted for the
chitosan-treated and two-bath method-treated fabrics,
respectively, when compared with those in the control
fabric. The decrease in break load might be because of
the acid damage that occurred inside the chitosan-treated
Crocking (C/M/Y/K)
Colour change Wet Dry
4 3/3/3/3 4/4/4/4
4–5 4/4/4/4 4–5/4–5/4–5/4–5
4–5 4/4/4/4 4–5/4–5/4–5/4–5
Yellow Black
81 82 81 82 81
80 81 80 81 80
80 81 80 81 80
269
Yuen et al. Enhancing textile ink-jet printing

Table 4 Breaking load of ink-jet printed fabric resist bacteria when compared with that for control fabric.
Although the control fabric containing sodium alginate
Breaking load (N) had the function of anti-bacterial effect, its performance
was worse than the chitosan containing fabric.
Sample Warp direction Weft direction
Conclusion
Control fabric 410.60 247.00 Work has been conducted to evaluate the possibility of
Chitosan-treated fabric 407.55 245.02
Two-bath method-treated fabric 401.44 241.54 using chitosan as a thickener in the pretreatment print
paste for ink-jet printing. Based on the results of different
colour fastness tests, chitosan, in principle, could work as
a pretreatment print paste thickener. However, the final
cotton fabric fabricated at pH 5 in acid medium. In the
colour yield obtained from chitosan containing cotton
chitosan-treated fabric, the neutralisation effect
fabrics depended greatly on the stage of chitosan
minimised the acid damage but not contributed much in
application. Nevertheless, the colour fastness properties
the two-bath method. As the cotton fabrics were first
and the outline sharpness of the prints of cotton fabric
treated with acetic acid and underwent high curing
were moderately improved by the chitosan treatment.
temperature, both factors might have contributed to the
A two-bath method was developed to separate the
further reduction in the fabric tensile strength and hence
chitosan paste from sodium bicarbonate and urea before
reduced the breaking load.
being padded onto the fabric surface so as to minimise
the neutralisation effect. Based on the results of the
Anti-bacterial evaluation of the ink-jet printed fabrics
highest colour yield obtained on the cotton fabric, it was
AATCC Test Method 100 was used to determine the anti-
confirmed that the two-bath method was successfully
bacterial activity of the ink-jet printed fabrics. Table 5
developed. In addition, it was found that chitosan could
shows the bacterial concentration of Staphylococcus
also impart higher anti-bacterial property onto the cotton
aureus bacteria with respect to the ink-jet printed fabrics
fabric.
during 0 and 48 h.
The results indicated that the chitosan containing
fabrics, i.e. two-bath treated and chitosan-treated, showed References
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270 ª 2007 The Authors. Journal compilation ª 2007 Society of Dyers and Colourists, Color. Technol., 123, 267–270