| abstract |
Color bleed is alleviated between ink-jet inks by employing amphiphilic dyes. Amphiphilic dyes comprise a reactive dye covalently bonded to a hydrophobe. The amphiphilic dye, together with an aqueous liquid vehicle, form an ink-jet ink that evidences reduced color bleed and an improvement in overall print quality deriving from the micellization of the amphiphilic dye molecules. The reactive dye typically comprises any of the reactive dyes commonly employed in ink-jet printing, and the aqueous liquid vehicle typically comprises at least one organic solvent and water. The hydrophobe may be any compound compatible with the components in an ink-jet ink composition and may be an ionic amphiphile or a pH-sensitive or insensitive zwitterionic and non-ionic amphiphile. |