Digital inkjet printing on high-class wool textiles is in line with the trend, but the challenge such as reducing the impact of wool scales on print quality is still worth of attention. In this study, a novel environment-friendly method was applied to wool inkjet printing pretreatment without any generation of hazardous substances. H2O2 and papain were adopted to pretreat wool fabric before the inkjet printing process. Both the wettability and zeta potential of the treated fabric were improved obviously. Moreover, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy spectra and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy spectra proved the synergistic effect of H2O2 and papain where the oxidation of wool by H2O2 provided more sites for papain to hydrolyze wool peptide. The synergistic pretreatment produces additional sites for reactive dye fixation. As a result, the treated wool obtained higher color strength which greatly exceeds that of the untreated wool, and there is no discharge of harmful substances during the whole process. This work provided a promising direction for decreasing the discharge of harmful substances and improving the utilization rate of dye solution to achieve cleaner production.

No abstract

Mercerization can control the crystallinity of cotton fiber, promote the absorption of ink droplets' wick into the fiber and inhibit ink droplets from penetrating the back of fabric. Therefore, the printing quality was extremely enhanced.

Improving the development of high-value multifunctional wool fabrics was essential to satisfy diverse needs. Considering the various characteristics of chitosan macromolecules, herein, a padding-cross-linking process was adopted and then multifunctional wool fabrics with outstanding printing effects, shrink resistance, and antibacterial properties were fabricated. The test results showed that chitosan macromolecules loaded successfully on the wool fiber surface by Schiff base reaction. Wool fabrics changed from hydrophobic to hydrophilic due to the existence of chitosan macromolecules. The color strength (K/S value) of the reactive dye inkjet-printed wool fabric was greatly increased from 20.48 to 26.6. The area shrinkage of final samples was 2.53%, which was exceedingly lower than that of the original wool (10.96%). Moreover, the chitosan macromolecules with reactive amino groups endowed wool fabrics with certain antibacterial properties against E. coli and S. aureus. Generally, this study provided guidance for manufacturing multifunctional digital inkjet-printed wool products in mass production.

No abstract