Disperse dye/poly (styrene-methacrylic acid) nanospheres with high coloration performance for textiles

Dye/polymer nanosphere is a novel kind of colorant that can significantly enhance the dye utilization efficiency on textile. In order to improve the coloration ability of colored nanospheres, disperse dye/P(St-MAA) nanospheres with rough surface were successfully prepared through alkali pretreatment at pH 12 and coloration of disperse dyes. TEM image and particle size analysis indicate that the colored nanospheres had rough surfaces with the average particle size of 158.1 nm. The dye content of colored rough nanospheres was 63.7 mg/g, higher than the un-alkali-treated ones. The reason for the change of morphology, particle size and dye content was due to the swelling of nanospheres at alkali condition. The XRD, TGA and DSC diagrams show that the disperse dye molecules formed strong interaction with the macromolecular chains and aggregated to form crystals in the rough nanospheres. The printed cotton fabric shows higher color performance using the colored rough nanospheres because of the lower visible light reflectance. The printed fabric also exhibits satisfactory color fastness for practical application.