Abstract

This paper reports preparation of four samples of styrene – acrylic emulsion copolymers. It was performed in the presence of acrylic- acid, acryl amid, ammonium persulfate as a free radical initiator and sodium dodecyl benzene sulfate as an anionic emulsifier at 80°C. The resulting Ag nanoparticle-loaded grafted fabric was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis. The Ag nanoparticles were almost nodisperse in nature and their average diameter was approximately 12.5 nm. The fabric shows antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli depending upon the extent of grafting of the polymer network onto the fabric and the amount of nano Ag loaded into the grafted fabric. The synthesized emulsion copolymers was formulated by pigmented printing paste in the presence of an acrylic thickener in two different concentrations of 3 and 5% then printed on cotton and polyester/ cotton blend fabrics and then dried at 95°C at 2 min and then fixation at 150°C at 3 min. The characteristics of cured prints such as paste add-on, colour fastness K/S together with fabrics stiffness. The highest K/S is obtained and the fastness properties range between good and excellent for samples printed using methyl metha acrylate styrene (MMA) and lowest K/S is obtained in case of using ethyl acrylate styrene (EA) as a commercial binder.

Key words: Styrene, polyester, butadiene, printing, cotton.