Manufacture of a super-stable green gel pen ink based on CNC-indigo

Abstract

Abstract: Gel pens are the most popular writing instruments at present with the unique rheological properties for their excellent writing performance. It’s challenging to develop a super-stable gel pen ink, which is often manufactured based on complex ink components. In this paper, a new method was innovatively proposed to prepare a gel pen ink based on cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) and indigo. The effects of CNC concentration, storage temperature, acidity, alkalinity, and electrolyte content on the stability of the new CNC gel pen ink were investigated. When CNC concentration was between 3.81% and 7.08%, indigo usage was 1.5%, surfactant OP-10 dosage was 0.05%, the prepared new CNC gel pen ink exhibited good writing performance and super-stable dispersion stability. A little amount of acid, alkali and salt content would not impact the stability of the new CNC gel pen ink, which increased the feasibility of its industrial production and long-term storage or use. Graphic abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]