Multi-Color Printed Textiles for Ultraviolet Radiation Measurements, Creative Designing, and Stimuli-Sensitive Garments

This work concerns the new idea of textile printing with a multi-color system using pastes containing compounds sensitive to ultraviolet (UV) radiation. A screen printing method based on a modified CMYK color system was applied to a cotton woven fabric. Aqueous printing pastes were prepared from thickening and crosslinking agents and UV-sensitive compounds: leuco crystal violet (LCV), leuco malachite green (LMG), and 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) instead of the system’s standard process colors: cyan, magenta, and yellow. Depending on the number of printed layers and the type of UV radiation (UVA, UVB, and UVC), the modified textile samples change color after irradiation from white to a wide range of colors (from blue, red, and green to purple, brown, and gray). Based on reflectance measurements, the characteristic parameters of the one-, two-, and three-color-printed samples in relation to absorbed dose were determined, e.g., dose sensitivity, linear and dynamic dose response, and threshold dose. This printing method is a new proposal for UV dosimeters and an alternative standard for textile printing. Furthermore, the developed method can be used for the securing, marking, and creative design of textiles and opens up new possibilities for such stimulus-sensitive reactive printing.