New Strategy to Enhance Transfer printing and Functional Finishing of Polyester fabric

This research work is aimed to upgrade the transfer printability, the UV-protection and antibacterial functionalities of polyester woven fabric via alkali-treatment followed by post-loading of functional agents namely PVP, Triclosan, Chitosan, metal oxide nano particles MO-NPs i.e. TiO2, ZrO2, ZnO-NPs individually. The modified fabric samples were subsequently transfer printed with certain disperse dyes. The effect of treatment sequence and type of the used additive on the printability and functionality of the polyester prints were investigated. The results revealed that the creation of hydrophilic active sites namely carboxyl and hydroxyl end groups at the fabric surface, as well as loading and fixation of the used functional agents onto the finish/fabric matrix brought about polyester prints with a darker depth of shades, excellent antibacterial activity, and higher UV-protecting functionality compared with the untreated one