Improving the color yield of ink-jet printing on cationized cotton

This study examines the performance of digital ink-jet printing on cationized cotton treated with polyepichlorohydrin-dimethylamine (PECH-amine). The results show that the color yield of ink-jet printing with reactive inks on cationic modified cotton is much greater than that on untreated cotton. The effect on the increase of color yield by cationic modification is greater than that by preparation with alkali, urea, and thickener. The reason for this is that introducing positively charged sites increases dye uptake and dye fixation on cationized cotton. The results also show that cationic modification with PECH-amine decreases the rub fastness but increases the wash fastness of the treated cotton.