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Woven and knitted polyester fabrics were pretreated with formulations containing waterborne UV curable resins and silica particles to improve inkjet print quality. The selected formulations were applied with low add-on to reduce the adverse effect on fabric hand without sacrificing the print quality. A print pattern with block areas and lines in cyan, magenta, yellow, and black colors was designed and inkjet printed on the pretreated fabrics with a wide-format inkjet printer (Encad Novajet 750) to investigate the effects of the UV curable pretreatment on the inkjet print color qualities including color depth, color gamut and color lightness.

Experimental results show that both the color depth and gamut of prints on the pretreated taffeta and knitted polyester fabrics were enhanced compared to those on untreated polyester fabrics. However, both the color depth and gamut of the prints on the pretreated satin polyester fabrics were reduced. The lightness change of the inkjet printed colors on pretreated knitted fabrics is similar to that of untreated fabrics whereas the lightness change of prints on pretreated satin and taffeta fabrics shows some differences. All colors have increased lightness on pretreated satin fabrics. However, magenta and black have decreased lightness on the pretreated taffeta fabrics.

As the textile industry increasingly engages with technical applications, interest in electronic textiles is growing. This paper reviews the research and development (R&D), and commercialization efforts in conducting polymers and electronic textile materials by using conducting polymers. A brief historical overview of conducting polymer development starts this paper. A review then documents the molecular orbitals and molecular structures of polymers, and lists some commonly used conducting polymer chemical structures, their band gap energies, corresponding dopants, and conductivity values. Then, there is a detailed discussion of the conducting mechanisms, with special attention paid to the energy band gap concept; the formation of polaron, soliton, and bipolaron. With regards to applications, the review presents conducting polymer applications, including antistatic packaging, microelectronics, rechargeable batteries, photovoltaic technology, LEDs, electrochromic devices, actuators, membranes, corrosion protection and biomedical applications, as well as applications of electric and electronic textiles (e-textiles) which include sensors, heaters, electromagnetic interference shielding, etc. Future trends in electrochromic and solar textiles conclude this paper.

The purpose of this paper is to encapsulate aqueous dispersions of nano‐scale CI Pigment Red 122 prepared through ball milling into UV‐curable resins, 1,6 hexanediol diacrylate (HDDA, monomer), and polyester acrylate (oligomer) using the mini‐emulsion technique.

The encapsulation of pigment is achieved by mixing a surfactant‐stabilised pigment dispersions and a monomer/oligomer mini‐emulsions and subjecting both to mini‐emulsification conditions. A film of encapsulated pigment mini‐emulsion is finally UV cured using water‐soluble initiator. Efficient encapsulation is proven by ultra‐centrifugal sedimentation, scanning electron microscopy and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The stability of pigment dispersions and also the encapsulation process are investigated.

TGA and ultracentrifuge sedimentation results showed that CI Pigment Red 122 is successfully encapsulated into polyester acrylate/HDDA resins. The oligomer (polyester acrylate) in the presence of organic pigment could stabilise the mini‐emulsion droplets without introducing any other hydrophobes (co‐stabiliser) in the formulation. In addition, the encapsulation percentage and suspension stability of mini‐emulsion are best when the polyester acrylate/HDDA weight ratio is 3:2.

The UV‐curable resins used in the present context are 1,6 HDDA and polyester acrylate. Besides, various oligomer/monomer composition types could be used and its impact on encapsulation efficiency could be also studied.

This method of encapsulation is practically effective for modification of organic pigments for use in UV‐curable ink‐jet printing inks.

The developed method is novel from a literature point of view and can be of a great benefit to achieve the required properties of pigmented UV‐curable system in inkjet printing of textiles. In addition, it could find numerous applications in surface coating.