Influence of additives on the fabric stiffness and colour depth of viscose printed with a guar gum thickener and a reactive dye

The effect of additives in a printing paste containing guar gum thickener and bireactive dye for cellulose printing was studied. The efficiency of the additives with respect to their chemical structure and concentration and the efficiency in combination with thickeners of different types (nonsubstituted, different degrees of carboxymethylation) and different concentrations (solid content) was investigated by assessing the fabric stiffness, colour depth, dye penetration, the viscosity and viscoelasticity of the printing paste and the printing paste add-on. Some additives caused a decrease in the fabric stiffness to an acceptable degree with little effect on the colour depth. Dye penetration was found to be exclusively additive-dependent. Spectroscopic and rheological investigations confirmed the reduction of dye/guar gum interactions due to the occurrence of additive/guar gum and additive/dye interactions. The best quality prints were obtained using a printing past containing a nonionic surfactant and a highly carboxymethylated guar gum thickener.