Enhancing printing properties of green water-based inks by emulsifying polyacrylate latex binder with renewable emulsifier

Purpose The purpose of this paper was to develop an eco-friendly water-based ink with excellent performance via using polyacrylate emulsion prepared by semi-continuous seed. During the emulsion polymerization process, green and renewable non-ionic surfactant alkyl polyglycoside (APG) combined with sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) was used as the emulsifier. Design/methodology/approach The as-prepared emulsion was characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and an atomic force microscope. The synthesis conditions of polyacrylate latex were optimized by the L9 (34) orthogonal test. Using the resultant polyacrylate latex as the binder, a new water-based ink was achieved and its printing performance was compared with that of the ink prepared by the OP-10/SDS emulsifying system. Findings Optimum synthetic conditions (including the hard-to-soft monomer ratio and the dosage of functional monomer, complex emulsifier and initiator) were 5:4, 2%, 6% and 0.4%, respectively. The results showed that the initial dryness of the water-based ink prepared with the proposed green emulsifier was almost the same as that of the traditional emulsifier (OP-10/SDS). And both of the inks exhibited good adhesion properties on polyethylene terephthalate, polyamide, polyvinyl chloride and polyethylene films, especially on polyethylene substrates, that reached 100%. Originality/value Polyacrylate emulsion synthesized with the renewable emulsifier was used as the binder for water-based ink. The obtained ink exhibited excellent properties and potential applications in the field of packaging and printing. In a word, an excellent eco-friendly water-based ink with two main properties – adhesion and dryness being improved was developed by using renewable emulsifier.