Environmental Cationic Dye/Porous Silica Nanospheres for Printed Cotton Fabrics with Enhanced Coloration Performance

The wastewater of printing and dyeing is difficult to treat due to the degradation resistance of dye and the use of massive chemicals, causing a threat to the ecosystem. Pigment printing of fabrics possesses great advantages like high efficiency and flexible production, but there are some challenges like the risk of color depth and hand feeling due to the large size of the pigment and poor adsorption of light. In order to improve the coloration ability of pigment, herein, a novel kind of cationic dye/porous silica nanospheres were prepared through the adsorption of methylene blue and rhodamine B onto electronegative porous silica nanospheres and applied in printing on woven cotton fabric. It was found that the nanospheres exhibited an average diameter, good color depth, hand feeling, and high image quality for pigment preparation. In comparison with dye-printed fabrics, fabrics with dye/WHMS show higher color depth, resulting from the lower visible light reflectance. Notably, the strong interaction between dyes and hydrophilic porous silica nanospheres (WHMS) facilitates the improvement of absorption efficiency and stability. Meanwhile, the printed fabrics with dye/WHMS demonstrate splendid color fastness. The dry/wet rubbing fastnesses are 4 and 3–4, respectively. Furthermore, dye/WHMS-printed cotton fabrics possess a satisfactory hand feeling and breathability. The consumptions of dye wastewater were reduced, and the printing process was simplified. We think that this work may provide a novel insight into printed textiles with enhanced color effects and alleviate the environmental impact of conventional textile coloration.