Study of irreversible thermochromic ink application on textiles

Abstract

In the development of new products or new applications of known products, investigations have to be carried out concerning the choice of the kind of thermochromic matter, support, application form, concerning the evolution of colour change and stability versus imposed external parameters. The present paper studies the application of an irreversible thermochromic ink for the development of new high added value textiles, which may be prone to applications such as plasma treatments at low pressure. The optimum application conditions of the ink and the best colour response on different fabrics was investigated. Progressive heating of the fabrics produced increasingly more intense magenta colour which was studied by spectrophotometry. The different results obtained were discussed in terms of the interactions between chemical groups of the fibres and those of the binder of the ink formulation. The combined effect of low pressures and high temperatures was investigated, revealing that only very thin layers of the ink paste on the textile substrates are appropriate for such applications.