Polyvinyl Alcohol in Ink-Jet Coatings, PaperCon 2010 Conference

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Polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH) is a water soluble, crystalline polymer and widely used in paper industry utilizing its strong binding strength, film forming performance and oil resistance character. In coated ink jet media PVOH is well known material for both swellable and porous coatings. PVOH has remaining acetyl groups (polyvinyl acetate unit) and it is important to select right degree of hydrolysis to have adequate performance. For swellable coatings low hydrolyzed PVOH provides faster ink setting because of larger amount of amorphous part but lack of water resistance (wet rub resistance) is the concern to use PVOH. Also some additives would be necessary to improve its storage stability. For porous coatings fully hydrolyzed PVOH is known as a good binder because of higher binding strength and less swelling character. Especially silanol containing PVOH is more effective because of its cross-linking ability and provides better printing quality (more available pores) and higher water resistance. Micro-porous glossy coatings have been getting common for better printing quality and faster ink setting. Capability to absorb pigment based ink is also an advantage of micro-porous ink receptive layer. Effect of molecular weight (MW) to prevent “cracking” in the media is evaluated. Benefit using super high MW PVOH will be suggested in the presentation.