Preparation and Characterisation of Polyurethane Acrylate-Based Titanium Dioxide Pigment for Blue Light-Curable Ink

Herein, a polyurethane acrylate-based TiO₂ (PU-TiO₂) was fabricated using a two-step method. First, a polyurethane prepolymer was prepared. Second, PU-TiO₂ was prepared using amino-modified TiO₂ (A-TiO₂). The best synthesis process of the polyurethane prepolymer was when the reaction temperature was 80 °C, the reaction time was 3 h and the R-value of the polyurethane acrylate was 2. Next, the influence of the A-TiO₂ content on the structure and performance of PU-TiO₂ was examined. The analysis of the rheological properties of the PU-TiO₂ ink indicated that its viscosity gradually increased as the A-TiO₂ content increased. The tensile performance of film improved because of the presence of A-TiO₂. The photo-polymerisation and photo-rheological performance indicated that the PU-TiO₂ structure changed from a hyperbranched structure with TiO₂ as the core to a segmented structure, as the A-TiO₂ content was 3%.