Effects of Surfactant, Propylene Glycol, and Incorporation Sequence on the Properties of Eco-Friendly Aqueous Sublimation Transfer Inkjet Inks

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Printing Science and Technology, Institute for Color Science and Technology, P.O. Box: 32465-654, Tehran, Iran

2 Department of Environmental Research, Institute for Color Science and Technology, P.O. Box: 32465-654, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

The effects of a nonionic surfactant, propylene glycol, and surfactant incorporation sequence on the dispersion behavior, stability, and rheological properties of aqueous sublimation transfer inkjet inks were systematically investigated. Dispersion evolution during jar milling was monitored by turbidity measurements and validated by dynamic light scattering and UV-Visible spectroscopy. Surfactant and humectant accelerated the initial stage of particle size reduction, whereas the formulation containing neither additive ultimately achieved the smallest particle size after prolonged milling (151 vs. 317 nm). This behavior indicates that improved wetting dominates the early stage of milling, whereas the final particle size is governed by the balance between wetting, capillary-assisted agglomerate fracture, and Ostwald ripening. Formulations containing propylene glycol also exhibited inferior ultimate dispersion efficiency. Freeze–thaw testing revealed that the combined presence of surfactant and propylene glycol reduced dispersion stability, particularly when the surfactant was added after milling, highlighting the destabilizing role of non-adsorbed surfactant. All formulations followed the Ostwald–de Waele power-law model (R² > 0.99), while the additive-free formulation exhibited the strongest shear-thinning behavior (n = 0.785 versus 0.90 ± 0.075). These findings demonstrate that under the investigated formulation conditions, surfactant incorporation sequence is an important processing variable affecting milling efficiency, dispersion stability, and rheological performance.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

  1. Derby B, Reis N. Inkjet printing of highly loaded particulate suspensions. MRS Bull. 2003; 28(11):815-8. https://doi.org/10.1557/mrs2003.230.
  2. Wijshoff H. The dynamics of the piezo inkjet printhead operation. Physics Reports. 2010;491(4):77-177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physrep.2010.03.003.
  3. Maleki H, Bertola V. Recent advances and prospects of inkjet printing in heterogeneous catalysis. Catal Sci Technol. 2020;10(10):3140-59. https://doi.org/10. 1039/ D0CY00040J.
  4. Bermel AD, Bugner D. Particle size effects in pigmented inkjet inks. 1999:320-4. https://doi.org/10. 2352/J.ImagingSci.Technol.1999.43.4.art00002
  5. Reis N, Derby B. Ink Jet Deposition of ceramic suspensions: modeling and experiments of droplet formation. MRS Proc. 2000;625:117. https://doi.org/ 10.1557/PROC-625-117.
  6. Dong H, Carr WW, Morris JF. An experimental study of drop-on-demand drop formation. Phys Fluids. 2006;18(7):072102. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2217929
  7. Chung YS. Turbidimetric evaluation of the dispersion properties of disperse dyes. Textile Res J. 2000;70(6): 550-4. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/ 004051750007000613.
  8. Kwade A, Schwedes J. Chapter 6; Wet Grinding in Stirred Media Mills. In: Salman AD, Ghadiri M, Hounslow MJ, editors. Handbook of Powder Technology. 12: Elsevier Science B.V.; 2007. p. 251-382.
  9. Tadros TF. Interparticle Interactions and Their Combination. Rheology of Dispersions. Weinheim, Germany: John Wiley & Sons; 2010. p. 7-36.
  10. Tadros TF. Adsorption of Surfactants and Polymeric Surfactants at the Solid/Liquid Interface. Applied Surfactants 2005. p. 85-113.
  11. Napper DH. Steric stabilization. J Colloid Interface Sci. 1977;58(2):390-407. https://doi.org/10.1016/ 0021-9797(77)90150-3.
  12. Jalili M, Mohammad Raei Naeini M, Bastani S, Ajili N. Optimizing the surfactant/polymeric dispersant combination in pigment-based aqueous inkjet inks. Prog Color Colorant Coat. 2025;18(2):177-188. https://doi.org/10.30509/pccc.2024.167361.1316.
  13. Le HP. Progress and trends in ink-jet printing technology. J Imaging Sci Technol. 1998;42(1):49-62. https://doi.org/10.2352/J.ImagingSci.Technol.1998.42.1.art00007.
  14. Barnes HA. Thixotropy-a review. J Non-Newtonian Fluid Mech. 1997;70(1):1-33. https://doi.org/10.1016/ S0377-0257(97)00004-9.
  15. Washburn EW. The dynamics of capillary flow. Phys Rev. 1921;17(3):273-83. https://link.aps.org/doi/10. 1103/PhysRev.17.273.
  16. Han A, Mondin G, Hegelbach NG, de Rooij NF, Staufer U. Filling kinetics of liquids in nanochannels as narrow as 27 nm by capillary force. J Colloid Interface Sci. 2006;293(1):151-7.https://doi.org/10. 1016/j.jcis.2005.06.037.
  17. Jalili M, Naeini MMR, Ajili N. Optimizing dispersion in sublimation inkjet inks: unveiling the role of sodium naphthalene sulfonate formaldehyde con-densate as a co-dispersant. J Coat Technol Res. 2025;22(4):1557-72. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11998-024-01060-w.
  18. Alihoseini MR, Khani MR, Jalili M, Shokri B. Direct sublimation inkjet printing as a new environmentally friendly approach for printing on polyester textiles. Prog Color Colorant Coat. 2021;14(2):129-38. https:// doi.org/10.30509/pccc.2021.81699.
  19. Hao L, Cai Y, Wang R. Preparation of ultrafine pigment dispersion and investigation of its adsorption performance on cationized flax substrate. Adsorpt Sci Technol. 2011;29(9):875-85. https://doi.org/10.1260/ 0263- 6174.29.9.875.
  20. Gharanjig H, Gharanjig K, Sarli MA, Ozguney AT, Jalili M, Gharanjik A, et al. Effect of molecular composition of comb-like polycarboxylate dispersants on hydrophobic dye dispersion properties. J Mol Liq. 2022;350:118615. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. molliq. 2022.118615.
  21. Rust S, Pauer W. Determination of inline-particle sizes by turbidity measurement in high solid content emulsion polymerisations. J Polym Res. 2022;29 (7): 307. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10965-022-03141-z.
  22. Konnerth C, Flach F, Breitung-Faes S, Damm C, Schmidt J, Kwade A, et al. Impact of stressing con-ditions and polymer–surfactant interactions on product characteristics of organic nanoparticles produced by media milling. Powder Technol. 2016;294:71-79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2016.02.016.
  23. Kabalnov A. Ostwald ripening and related pheno-mena. J Dispersion Sci Technol. 2001;22(1):1-12. https://doi.org/10.1081/DIS-100102675.
  24. McBain JW, Merrill RC, Jr. Solubilization of water-insoluble dye in aqueous solutions of commercial detergents. Indust Eng Chem. 1942;34(8):915-9. https://doi.org/10.1021/ie50392a004.
  25. Israelachvili JN. Intermolecular and Surface Forces: Revised Third Edition. Oxford, UK: Elsevier Science; 2011.
  26. Oyarzúm JM. Pigment Processing: Physico-Chemical Principles. Hannover, Germany: Vincentz Network; 2016.
  27. Parfitt GD. The dispersion of powders in liquids-an introduction. Powder Technol. 1977;17(2):157-62. https://doi.org/10.1016/0032-5910(77)80040-5
  28. Chang CJ, Chang SJ, Tsou S, Chen SI, Wu FM, Hsu MW. Effects of polymeric dispersants and surfactants on the dispersing stability and high-speed-jetting properties of aqueous-pigment-based ink-jet inks. J Polym Sci, Part B: Polym Phys. 2003;41(16):1909-20. https://doi.org/10.1002/polb.10562.
  29. Agbo C, Jakpa W, Sarkodie B, Boakye A, Fu S. A Review on the mechanism of pigment dispersion. J Dispersion Sci Technol. 2018;39(6):874-89. https:// doi.org/10.1080/01932691.2017.1406367.
  30. Furusawa K, Sato A, Shirai J, Nashima T. Depletion flocculation of latex dispersion in ionic micellar systems. J Colloid Interface Sci. 2002;253(2):273-8. https://doi.org/10.1006/jcis.2002.8515.
  31. Ji S, Walz JY. Depletion forces and flocculation with surfactants, polymers and particles-Synergistic effects. Current Opinion Colloid Interface Sci. 2015; 20(1):39-45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cocis.2014.11.006.
  32. Krainer S, Smit C, Hirn U. The effect of viscosity and surface tension on inkjet printed picoliter dots. RSC Adv. 2019; 9(54):31708-19. https://doi.org/10.1039/ C9RA04993B.
  33. He B, Yang S, Qin Z, Wen B, Zhang C. The roles of wettability and surface tension in droplet formation during inkjet printing. Sci Rep. 2017;7(1):11841. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-12189-7.
  34. Sis H, Birinci M. Wetting and rheological charac-teristics of hydrophobic organic pigments in water in the presence of non-ionic surfactants. Colloids Surf Physicochem Eng Aspects. 2014;455:58-66. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.colsurfa.2014.04.042.
  35. Willenbacher N, Georgieva K. Rheology of Disperse Systems. Product Design and Engineering. Weinheinm, germany: John Wiley & Sons; 2013. p. 7-49.

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics