Novel high-performing water-borne polyurethane dispersions based on polycarbonate diol for durable digital decoration

 
Textile pigmented ink jet inks are facing new thought-provoking technical requirements, not only regarding the final performances but also the inkjet technology itself. Binders in their complex formulation must fix the pigment to the fibers and assure an outstanding performance on color intensity and its retention over time, even under harsh conditions. To meet these challenging requirements and the compatibility with inkjet technology, novel PUDs based on polycarbonate diols have been developed and characterized. These have showed excellent properties in inkjet compatibility, highlighting low viscosity, excellent filterability, exceptional stability, with suitable open times. Moreover, the performance of the novel binders in different textile substrates regarding color intensity and fastness to washing and rubbing was studied. Here, different binders were prepared out from polycarbonate diols with different aliphatic chains, achieving an excellent control in the binder design for reaching an optimized wide range of final properties in the textile pigmented ink jet inks with outstanding durability over time.