JP2012193226A - Nonaqueous ink - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide nonaqueous ink that is excellent in pigment dispersion stability and also is capable of suppressing strike through and excellent in storage stability and discharge stability.SOLUTION: The nonaqueous ink includes at least a pigment and an organic solvent, wherein the organic solvent includes a cyclic carbonate ester and a phosphoric triester represented by general formula, wherein R, R, and Rare each a 1-8C saturated alkyl group which may have a straight chain or a branched chain or an aromatic group and R, R, and Rmay be the same or different, and the total content of the cyclic carbonate ester and the phosphoric triester is 50 mass% or more relative to the total ink amount.

Description

  The present invention relates to a non-aqueous ink that is suitable for use in an ink jet recording system, and more particularly to a non-aqueous ink that is excellent in the effect of suppressing show-through and excellent in storage stability and ejection stability.

  Inkjet recording is a method in which high-fluidity inkjet ink is ejected as ink particles from fine head nozzles, and images are recorded on printing paper placed facing the nozzles, enabling high-speed printing with low noise. Therefore, it has been spreading rapidly in recent years. As inks used in such an ink jet recording method, various so-called non-aqueous inks in which pigments are finely dispersed in a water-insoluble solvent have been proposed.

  For example, in Patent Document 1, the applicant has proposed a non-aqueous ink containing a pigment, an organic solvent, an ester solvent, a higher alcohol solvent, a hydrocarbon solvent, and the like, and further containing a soluble polymer dispersant. This ink has excellent on-machine stability, ink-jet suitability, and has the advantage that a printed surface that does not stick even when superimposed on a printed surface printed by a PPC copier or laser printer can be obtained. Yes, and excellent in toner suitability. Patent Document 2 discloses a non-aqueous ink containing a pigment, a fatty acid ester solvent and a hydrocarbon solvent as organic solvents, and further containing a dispersion type polymer dispersant (NAD).

  Conventionally, pigment-dispersed non-aqueous inks are modified by using a resin or a polymer-type dispersant (dissolved type or NAD) as described in Patent Documents 1 and 2, or directly by a polymer on the pigment surface. By carrying out (grafting or microencapsulation), the dispersion stability of the pigment has been ensured. In any of these methods, the aggregation of the pigment is physically suppressed by the steric hindrance by the polymer. In other words, the pigment dispersion stability of the ink is improved by including the polymer component in the ink. I will try to let you.

JP 2007-126564 A JP 2007-197500 A

  However, when a polymer component is contained in the ink, the pigment is not a polymer component after the ink has been transferred to the printing paper because the affinity between the pigment and the polymer component is high, or because the pigment and the polymer component are bonded. Easily penetrates into the paper. For this reason, the printing density on the surface of the printing paper is lowered or the back-through occurs. That is, in the pigment dispersion by the polymer, if it is intended to improve the pigment dispersibility, it will promote the reduction of the printing density and the occurrence of show-through, and if it is intended to improve the printing density and suppress the show-through, There is a relationship in which one of the pigment dispersion properties is deteriorated and the other must be sacrificed to some extent.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and is capable of realizing a high printing density with an excellent anti-through-through effect, with excellent pigment dispersion stability, and excellent storage stability and ejection stability. The object is to provide a water-based ink.

The non-aqueous ink of the present invention is a non-aqueous ink containing at least a pigment and an organic solvent, and the organic solvent contains a cyclic carbonate and the following general formula (wherein R ¹ , R ² and R ³ are each a carbon number) 1 to 8 saturated alkyl groups or aromatic groups, and the alkyl groups may be linear or branched, and R ¹ , R ² , and R ³ may be the same or different. In the following, the content of the cyclic carbonate and the phosphate triester is 50% by mass or more based on the total amount of the ink. It is characterized by being.

The cyclic carbonate is preferably at least one selected from propylene carbonate, 1,2-butylene carbonate, ethylene carbonate, and derivatives thereof.
The content of the polymer component in the ink is preferably 20% by mass or less of the pigment. Here, the polymer component means a polymer having a repeating structure of a monomer (monomer) and having a molecular weight of 500 or more.
The total content of the cyclic carbonate and the phosphoric acid triester is more preferably 60 to 97% by mass with respect to the total amount of the ink.

The inkjet recording method of the present invention is characterized in that after printing using the non-aqueous ink, a charge is applied to the printing surface.
The step of imparting electric charge is preferably performed by corona treatment or microwave irradiation.

  The non-aqueous ink of the present invention includes both a cyclic carbonate and an organic triester represented by the above general formula as an organic solvent. A non-aqueous ink having a high printing density can be obtained by improving the see-through suppression. Moreover, since it can be set as the non-aqueous ink excellent in storage stability and discharge stability by pigment dispersion stability, it can be used suitably as an inkjet ink.

It is a graph which shows the relationship between the viscosity of an ink of an Example and a comparative example, and a share. It is the graph which expanded the scale of the vertical axis | shaft of the graph shown in FIG.

The non-aqueous ink of the present invention (hereinafter also simply referred to as ink) is an ink containing at least a pigment and an organic solvent, and the organic solvent contains a cyclic carbonate and a phosphate triester represented by the following general formula, The combined content of the cyclic carbonate and the phosphate triester is 50% by mass or more based on the total amount of the ink.

  Preferred examples of the cyclic carbonate include propylene carbonate, 1,2-butylene carbonate, ethylene carbonate, and derivatives thereof. Examples of the derivative include a compound in which a hydrogen atom is substituted with a fluorine atom or an alkyl group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms.

The phosphoric acid triester represented by the following general formula, wherein R ¹ , R ² and R ³ are each a saturated alkyl group or aromatic group having 1 to 8 carbon atoms, and the alkyl group is a straight chain It may be branched or branched, and R ¹ , R ² and R ³ may be the same or different. Specific examples include trimethyl phosphate, triethyl phosphate, tributyl phosphate, triisopropyl phosphate, tripropyl phosphate, trioctyl phosphate, and triphenyl phosphate.

  The total content of the cyclic carbonate and the phosphate triester is 50% by mass or more with respect to the total amount of the ink, and more preferably 60 to 97% by mass with respect to the total amount of the ink. While the cyclic carbonate can improve the printing density, the viscosity at the time of low shear tends to increase. Phosphoric triesters can reduce viscosity at low shares, while contributing little to print density. Therefore, the ratio of the cyclic carbonate and phosphate triester used in combination depends on the type of cyclic carbonate and phosphate triester used, but generally ranges from 50:50 to 95: 5, preferably 75:25 to 95. : 5 is preferable.

  Ordinary ink contains about 0.5 to 30% by mass of a polymer component such as a dispersant or resin (about 30 to 200% by mass with respect to the pigment) with respect to the total amount of the ink in order to achieve dispersibility of the pigment. It is necessary to let However, since the ink of the present invention can achieve pigment dispersibility by using a cyclic carbonate ester and a phosphoric acid triester in combination with a solvent, it is sufficient even if the content of the polymer component is 20% by mass or less of the pigment. It is possible to ensure the pigment dispersion stability. On the other hand, since cyclic carbonate ester and phosphoric acid triester have a weaker affinity for pigment than polymer, after ink has transferred to printing paper like polymer, pigment does not drag and penetrate into the paper. There is almost no show-through, and as a result, high-density printing can be performed.

  Since the ink of the present invention has few polymer components, the temperature dependence of the ink viscosity is low, and the viscosity does not easily increase even in a low temperature environment. Therefore, it is suitable as an inkjet ink. In particular, since the ink of the present invention can be printed at a high density, it is suitable for a line-type ink jet recording apparatus that requires image formation in one pass. In addition, the ink of the present invention can adjust the ink viscosity in a low-temperature environment to an appropriate range with low power consumption, and can reduce the ink viscosity at a low share as shown in the Examples. Therefore, since the temperature can be adjusted in a short time even in a circulation type ink jet system that requires temperature adjustment of a large amount of ink, it can be suitably used in a circulation type ink jet system.

  The content of the polymer component in the ink is 20% by mass or less of the pigment, preferably 5% by mass or less, more preferably substantially not contained. Here, “substantially not containing” means not only containing no polymer component but also containing, for example, the polymer component as an unavoidable impurity.

  The polymer component includes a polymer component originally contained in the pigment in addition to a case where the polymer component is intentionally contained such as a polymer dispersant or a resin. When a polymer dispersant is included as a polymer component, for example, commercially available Solsperse series (Solsperse 20000, 27000, 41000, 41090, 43000, 44000) manufactured by Nippon Lubrizol Co., Ltd., John Kuryl manufactured by BASF Japan Ltd. Series (Jonkrill 57, 60, 62, 63, 71, 501), polyvinyl pyrrolidone K-30, K-90 manufactured by Daiichi Kogyo Seiyaku Co., Ltd. and the like can be mentioned.

  When a resin is included as a polymer component, Marquide NO. 31, NO. 32, NO. 33, Marquide NO. Styrene acrylic resins such as 32-30WS maleic acid resin, Tamano 751 manufactured by Arakawa Chemical Industry Co., Ltd., phenol resin such as Tamanoru PA, Jonkrill 682 (trade name) manufactured by BASF Japan, Tachikasei Kogyo Co., Ltd. High-rack 111, 110H, etc. made of ketone resin, Nippon Steel Chemical Co., Ltd., Escron G90, V120, etc. Coumaron resin, Chisso Co., Ltd., Vinylec E type, K type, etc., Polyvinyl formal resin, Ube Industries, Ltd. Ε-caprolactam copolymer such as nylon 6 manufactured by Sekisui Chemical Co., Ltd., Polysethyl butyral resin such as ESREC BL-1 and BL-2, polystyrene such as Astyka Chemical Co., Ltd. Such as polyacrylic acid ester, polymethyl methacrylate, Polymethacrylates such as propyl methacrylate, addition polymerization resins such as chlorinated polypropylene, polyvinyl acetate, maleic anhydride polymer, acrylonitrile / butadiene / styrene resin, chlorinated polypropylene, DFK resin, polyester, polyurethane, polyamide, etc. Examples include condensation polymerization resins.

  The organic solvent contained in the ink of the present invention may be a mixed solvent of the above cyclic carbonate and phosphate triester, but may contain other organic solvents. Examples of organic solvents other than cyclic carbonates and phosphate triesters include water-soluble organic solvents. Specifically, ethylene glycol, diethylene glycol, triethylene glycol, tetraethylene glycol, pentaethylene glycol, propylene glycol, Glycol derivatives such as dipropylene glycol and tripropylene glycol, glycerin, acetins, triethylene glycol monomethyl ether, triethylene glycol monobutyl ether, tetraethylene glycol monomethyl ether, tetraethylene glycol dimethyl ether, tetraethylene glycol diethyl ether and the like , Triethanolamine, 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidone, β-thioglycol, sulfolane, etc. Door can be. These water-soluble organic solvents can be used alone or in combination of two or more.

  Conventionally known inorganic pigments and organic pigments may be appropriately used in the ink of the present invention. Examples of inorganic pigments include titanium oxide, bengara, cobalt blue, ultramarine blue, bitumen, carbon black, calcium carbonate, kaolin, clay, barium sulfate, talc, and silica. Examples of the organic pigment include insoluble azo pigments, azo lake pigments, condensed azo pigments, condensed polycyclic pigments, and copper phthalocyanine pigments. These pigments may be used alone or in appropriate combination. The addition amount of the pigment is preferably 0.5 to 20% by mass with respect to the total amount of the ink.

  A pigment that has not been surface-treated can be used as the pigment, but a pigment having a polar functional group is more preferred, and an acidic pigment is particularly preferred. Examples of polar functional groups include carboxylic acid groups, sulfonic acid groups, hydroxyl groups, amino groups, imino groups, aldehyde groups, carbonyl groups, and nitro groups. Such pigments are more likely to ensure dispersion stability. For example, the carbon black is preferably one obtained by acid-treating acidic carbon black or neutral carbon black and having a pigment washing water pH of 4.0 or less. The pH of the pigment washing water is measured according to JIS standard K5101-17-1. Specific examples of the acidic pigment include carbon black MA100, MA11, MA8, MA7 (Mitsubishi Chemical), Raven 1040, Raven 1255 (Colombian), Regal 400 (Cabot), Cyanine Blue KRG, Cyanine Blue 4044 (Sanyo Dye), Preferred examples include Brilliant Carmine 6B-321, Super Red BN (DIC), AP22 (Daiichi Seika), Fast Yellow 4190 (DIC), and the like.

  In addition to the above components, the ink of the present invention may contain conventional additives. Additives include surfactants such as anionic, cationic, amphoteric or nonionic surfactants, antioxidants such as dibutylhydroxytoluene, propyl gallate, tocopherol, butylhydroxyanisole, and nordihydroguaiare. And tic acid.

  The ink of the present invention can be prepared by, for example, supplying all components in a known disperser such as a bead mill in a batch or divided and dispersing them, and if desired, passing them through a known filter such as a membrane filter.

  Since the ink of the present invention has a property of energizing while being a non-aqueous ink, it has a property of aggregating when an electric charge is applied. Therefore, after printing using the ink of the present invention, the pigment is aggregated by applying an electric charge to the printing surface, and the pigment stays on the surface of the printing paper, so that the penetration of the pigment into the paper is further suppressed. It is possible to further reduce the strikethrough. The step of imparting electric charge is preferably performed by corona treatment (corona discharge treatment) or microwave irradiation.

In the corona treatment, a printing paper is passed between an insulated electrode and a dielectric roll, and a high frequency (about 40 kHz) high voltage is applied to generate a corona discharge. By this corona treatment, a gas component such as oxygen becomes an active plasma state, and an electric charge is given by accelerated electrons in the corona treatment. The microwave irradiation is, for example, an electromagnetic wave having a frequency of 300 MHz to 30 GHz (a wavelength of 1 cm to 1 m). Corona treatment or microwave irradiation varies depending on the frequency used, but a sufficient charge can be applied in several seconds to several tens of seconds. Specifically, for example, an inkjet printer having a corona discharge device as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-207528 and Utility Model Registration No. 3136647, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-084289, and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-069870. It can be carried out using an ink jet printer having a microwave irradiation unit as described in the publication, a separate corona discharge device or a microwave irradiation device.
Examples of the non-aqueous ink of the present invention are shown below.

(Preparation of carbon black prototype)
Carbon black (MA600, particle diameter 20 nm, specific surface area 140 m ² / g (JISK6217), pH = 7, manufactured by Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation) 10 g, and KPS (persulfuric acid represented by K ₂ S ₂ O ₈ ) as a surface treatment agent 1 g of potassium (manufactured by Wako Pure Chemical Industries, Ltd.), 2 g of demole NL (β-naphthalenesulfonic acid formalin condensate sodium salt, manufactured by Kao Corporation) as a pigment dispersant, and 100 g of water as a solvent, stirring device, temperature It put in the flask which attached the meter, the nitrogen gas introducing device, and the cooling pipe.

  Next, zirconia beads (2.0 mmφ, 450 g / reaction mixture 100 g) were placed in the flask, and then nitrogen gas was blown into the flask while stirring to replace the inside of the flask. The flask was set in an oil bath set at 105 ° C. and subjected to reaction for 6 hours while stirring at 100 rpm in a nitrogen gas atmosphere. After removing the beads from the obtained reaction mixture by filtration, an equal mass of butisenol (tetraethylene glycol monobutyl ether, manufactured by Kyowa Hakko Chemical) was added to the remaining reaction mixture and stirred, and then the contents of the flask were centrifuged. To separate the solid and liquid.

The separated solid was dispersed in water, stirred at 70 ° C. for 12 hours to dissolve the unreacted surface treatment agent in water, and then filtered using a filter to isolate carbon black. The obtained carbon black was dried at 100 ° C. for 12 hours. When the obtained carbon black was analyzed using FT-IR, the presence of COOH groups and SO ₃ K groups was confirmed. Further, when the pH of the pigment washing water was measured in accordance with JIS standard K5101-17-1, the pH was 2.3.

(Preparation of ink)
The raw materials were premixed with the composition shown in Table 1 below (the numerical values shown in Table 1 are parts by mass), and then dispersed for a residence time of about 12 minutes to prepare inks of Examples and Comparative Examples.

(Ink viscosity)
The measurement was performed using a stress-controlled rheometer RS75 (cone angle: 1 °, diameter: 60 mm) manufactured by Haake. The viscosities at 1 Pa, 10 Pa, and 30 Pa were measured when the shear stress was increased from 0 Pa at a rate of 0.1 Pa / s at 23 °.

(Evaluation)
(Storage stability)
The inks of Examples and Comparative Examples were put in glass bottles, sealed, allowed to stand at room temperature for 1 week, then visually observed and evaluated according to the following criteria.
○: Pigment aggregation / precipitation is not observed Δ: Pigment aggregation / precipitation is slightly observed ×: Separation or pigment aggregation / precipitation is remarkable

(Background of printed matter)
About the ink of an Example and a comparative example, the ink which complete | finished the said storage stability test was transcribe | transferred to the ideal paper thin mouth with the bar coater, 24 hours after printing, the OD value of the back surface of a solid image was measured with the optical densitometer (RD920, Macbeth Co., Ltd.) and evaluated according to the following criteria.
◎: Less than 0.25 ○: 0.25 or more and less than 0.30 Δ: 0.30 or more and less than 0.40 ×: 0.40 or more

(Discharge stability)
Each ink was loaded into the ORPHIS-X9050 and a printing operation was performed. Then, the printing press was stopped for 30 minutes, and then the ejection performance when the printing operation was resumed was evaluated according to the following criteria.
A: No ejection failure does not occur. O: Occasional ejection failure occurs but is recovered by suction cleaning operation. X: Non-ejection nozzles occur frequently. Table 1 shows the results of prescription and evaluation of each ink.

  As shown in Table 1, the ink of the present invention was excellently dispersed and excellent in storage stability. Further, it can be seen that the combined use of the cyclic carbonate and the phosphoric acid triester suppresses back-through and is excellent in ejection stability. Comparative Examples 1, 5, and 7 are inks that do not contain a cyclic carbonate and contain only a phosphate triester, and Comparative Examples 2, 6, and 8 do not contain a phosphate triester and use only a cyclic carbonate as a solvent. However, with these inks, storage stability can be ensured, but back-through occurs and ejection stability cannot be obtained.

  This will be described using a graph. FIG. 1 is a graph showing the relationship between the viscosity and the shear of the inks of Examples and Comparative Examples, and FIG. 2 is a graph in which the scale of the vertical axis of the graph shown in FIG. 1 is enlarged. As is apparent from the graph, the viscosity curves of the inks of Examples 1, 5, 6 and 7, which are the inks of the present invention, drastically decrease in the low shear region, and the viscosity hardly changes in the high shear region. I understand that. The ink of Example 5 contains 50% by mass of cyclic carbonate ester and phosphoric acid triester with respect to the total amount of ink and 40% by mass of other solvents. Even in this ink, the tendency of the viscosity curve of the ink is It can be seen that it is retained.

  On the other hand, Comparative Examples 2, 6 and 8 are inks containing only propylene carbonate as a solvent, but these inks have a high viscosity even in a relatively high shear region, and it can be seen that the viscosity does not easily decrease even when the shear is applied. Comparative Example 4 is an ink containing neither cyclic carbonate ester nor phosphoric acid triester. In this case, although it approximates the viscosity curve of the ink of the present invention, as shown in Table 1, the showthrough is remarkable.

  From the above, it can be considered that the ink that draws a steep curve like the ink of the present invention when the share is gradually applied has good dischargeability because it can be assumed that the ink viscosity at the start of discharge is low. When this is evaluated by two indexes at 23 ° C., the ratio of the kinematic viscosity at a share of 1 Pa and the kinematic viscosity at 10 Pa, and the ratio of the kinematic viscosity at a share of 10 Pa and the kinematic viscosity at 30 Pa, Table 1 shows. From this result, the kinematic viscosity of the ink of the present invention has a ratio of the kinematic viscosity at 1 Pa of the ink and the kinematic viscosity at 10 Pa at 23 ° C. of 1.5 or less, and the kinematic viscosity at the share of 10 Pa and the kinematic viscosity at 30 Pa. The ratio is 1.3 or less. Thus, the ink of the present invention can reduce the ink viscosity with a low share.

(Microwave irradiation or corona treatment)
For the inks of Examples 1 and 2, after being transferred to an ideal paper thin mouth (A4 size) with a bar coater, microwave irradiation was performed using a microwave (ROL-3C, manufactured by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, 600 W) with a microwave of 2.45 GHz. Irradiation for 10 seconds, corona treatment is a desktop corona surface treatment device (AGF-B10, manufactured by Kasuga Denki Co., Ltd.) at 30 KHz and 0.25 KW / m ² for about 7 seconds (2 passes at a feed rate of 5 m / min). Processed. Table 2 shows the results of evaluation of the strikethrough in the same manner as described above. As shown in Table 2, it can be seen that the strike-through is further suppressed by microwave irradiation or corona treatment compared to the untreated one.

  As described above, the ink of the present invention can achieve both the pigment dispersion stability and the suppression of the back-through by using the cyclic carbonate and the phosphoric acid triester together in the solvent. A non-aqueous ink having a high concentration can be obtained. In addition, since it is a non-aqueous ink, it has the property of being energized, so by performing microwave irradiation or corona treatment, the pigment on the printed surface after printing can be aggregated and stay on the surface of the printing paper. Can be further reduced.

Claims (6)

A non-aqueous ink containing at least a pigment and an organic solvent, wherein the organic solvent contains a cyclic carbonate and the following general formula (wherein R ¹ , R ² and R ³ are each a saturated alkyl group having 1 to 8 carbon atoms or An aromatic group, and the alkyl group may be linear or branched, and R ¹ , R ² , and R ³ may be the same or different. A non-aqueous ink comprising an acid triester and a combined content of the cyclic carbonate and the phosphate triester is 50% by mass or more based on the total amount of the ink.
  The non-aqueous ink according to claim 1, wherein the cyclic carbonate is at least one selected from propylene carbonate, 1,2-butylene carbonate, ethylene carbonate, and derivatives thereof.   The non-aqueous ink according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the content of the polymer component in the ink is 20% by mass or less of the pigment.   4. The non-aqueous ink according to claim 1, wherein the total content of the cyclic carbonate and the phosphoric acid triester is 60 to 97 mass% with respect to the total amount of the ink.   An ink jet recording method comprising: applying a charge to a print surface after printing using the non-aqueous ink according to any one of claims 1 to 4.   6. The ink jet recording method according to claim 5, wherein the step of imparting electric charge is performed by corona treatment or microwave irradiation.