Using of chitosan as an alternative biodegradable thickener in reactive ink jet printing

Abstract EN

In this paper, cellulosic fabrics (cotton-viscose) was treated with chitosan as a biodegradable thickener as a replacement for convention thickener (Alginate and Carboxymethyle cellulose).

To achieve this goal, many trials have made in order to adjust the best conditions ever to apply chitosan as a thickener.

this trials lie on five main fields, the first one concerning the neutralization process its self, in order to adjust it in one or two baths, second was concerning by the best way and time for neutralization, then the third one is to choose the concentration for chitosan to use, then the fourth object is to compare the optimum concentration of using chitosan by the conventional methods, i.e.

Alginate and C.M.C.

and at last is to test the effect of mixing chitosan with alginate with different ratios.

The color yield and color fastness were measured far all of printed sample and the result showed that chitosan could be uses as a pretreatment agent for ink jet reactive prints weather alone or in mixture with alginate.