Rheological Studies Of Mineral Clay And Its Application In Printing Of Cotton Fabrics With Reactive Dyes

Special mineral clay generated from Shangsi County,Fangchenggang City of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region is worldly precious nonmetallic layered silicate resources.Its storage is abundant and price is competitive(400-600 RMB/ton).Furthermore,it possessed thickening,stability,thixotropicity and other brilliant characteristics.Therefore,this kind of mineral clay holds greatly potential development in novel inexpensive and high-quality printing thickener.This study conducted research on the structure and basic characteristics of special mineral clay and discussed the possibility of using it as reactive dye printing thickner.Rheological properties and printing performance during the cotton fabric reactive dyeing process were particular studied to explain the relationship between them.As to the shortcomings,well-performed printing thickner was formulated with the mineral clay and a new reactive dye thickner,which was charged of good-behavior and low price,was developed.Specific three aspects of experiments and results are as follows:(1)SEM and XRD were used to study microcosmic performance and formulation.Compared with sodium alginate(SA),basic properties including rheological property(viscosity),stability,hydrability were studied.The results presented that special mineral clay were consisted of quartz,illite,kaolinte,chlorite and montmorillonite.And the content of illite and quartz was relatively higher.Microcosmic study showed assemble schistose and organized structure with small holes of which size was 2 μm coated with some quartz particals.Original mineral clay(OMC)and sodium mineral clay(SMC)had better storage stability but poorer pasting rate and water-retention properties than SA.Chemical agents significantly influenced viscosity of OMC and SMC,alkali and resist salt S acted on OMC would increase viscosity whereas urea acted on both of OMC and SMC would decrease it to some degree.(2)The rheological properties viscosity,thixotropicity and temperature properties of OMC and SMC were studied by steady shear test,dynamic oscillatory test and transient test.The printing performance of mineral clay in cotton fabric reactive dye printing were investigated in Magnet flat screen printing process,including color yield,perviousness,printing pattern,softness and color fastness.Exploring its potential as a substitute for SA.The results showed as follows: mineral clay exhibited prominent shear-thinning of pseudoplastic fluids in steady shear test.Under lower strain,mineral clay primarily performed the elastic behavior.With the increase of strain,the viscosity of mineral clay increased and the elasticity decreased.Frequency had little impact on mineral clay system and the viscoelasticity experienced changes from elasticity to viscosity.And it had high viscosity recovery and good viscosity temperature performances.The optimized formula of OMC in which mass fractions of paste were respectively 70%,usage of Na2CO3 1-5%(NaHCO3 3-7%),resist salt S 1-3%.The optimized formula of treated clay paste were respectively 70%,usage of Na2CO3 1-5%(NaHCO3 1-7%),resist salt S 1-3%.(3)The SMC was modified by sodium alginate(SA),carboxymethyl starch(CMS),carboxymethyl cellulose(CMC),modifier R respectively.Studies of printing properties of modified mineral clay in reactive dye printing of cotton fabric were conducted.The results presented that the modified effects of mixtures by the four kinds of thickener were better,the optimal composite rate was SMC: SA= 20:1;SMC: CMS =30: 3.5;SMC: CMC= 25:1.5;SMC: modifier R= 15: 2.25.The modified mineral clay held better printing effect than that of SA,soft handle,dry and wet rubbing fastness were better as well.Due to cost concerns and effects,the compound modified mineral clay consisted of SMC and modifier R was able to act as a novel thickener in cotton fabric reactive dye printing.