Electronic and traditional textiles
have been widely manufactured
through inkjet printing. However, nanoliter-scale ink droplets tend
to excessively spread along the fiber direction, which results in
poor image quality and low ink utilization. Here, hydroxyethyl cellulose
(HEC) and hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose (HPMC) were introduced to
control the spreading of nanoliter-scale droplets on cotton fabrics.
The results showed that both HEC and HPMC could reduce the spreading
of nanoliter droplets along the fibers through increasing the hydrophobicity
of the fabric. However, the effect of HPMC was much better than that
of HEC due to its higher surface activity. The flow of nanoliter droplets
along the fibers was well consistent with the Washburn function. After
HPMC treatment, the depositing length of one droplet reduced from
beyond 200 μm to about 50 μm. The imaging quality was
greatly improved. In addition, the dye utilization increased by 33–78%
due to the decrease in the diffusion of dye solution to the back of
the fabric. This study is of great significance for improving the
quality of inkjet printing and the utilization of depositing materials,
particularly expensive materials.