Durable Antibacterial and Antifouling Cotton Fabric Fabricated Using a Combination of Grafting Through Method and Mist Polymerization Technology

Cotton fabric is easy to breed bacteria due to its porous structure and easy wettability, resulting in poor quality of cotton fabric and harm to human health. In order to prepare antibacterial and antifouling cotton fabric, the present work developed a new strategy. The acryloyl chloride (AC) was covalently linked to the surface of cotton fabric by nucleophilic substitution reaction, leading the surface of fabric to have the C=C bonds. Then, the C=C bonds on the treated fabric surface were polymerized with the allyltrimethylammonium chloride (ATAC) via mist polymerization technology, thus making the poly(allyltrimethylammonium chloride) (PTAC) was grafted onto the cotton fabric via grafting through method. As a result, the finished fabric showed excellent antibacterial effect against E. coli and S. aureus, with the bacterial reduction (BR) rates were higher than 99.0 %. Moreover, even after 50 laundering cycles, the BR rates of treated fabric against E. coli and S. aureus were also remained 95.8 %, exhibiting excellent durability. The finished cotton fabric was also showed outstanding antifouling for both bacterial and protein. The antibacterial and antifouling cotton fabric prepared by mist polymerization technology and grafting through method has a great potential application in the household and consumer textiles.

Automated summary

A new strategy was developed to prepare antibacterial and antifouling cotton fabric using mist polymerization technology and grafting through method. The finished fabric exhibited excellent antibacterial effect and durability, as well as outstanding antifouling properties against both bacterial and protein contamination. This new type of cotton fabric has great potential applications in household and consumer textiles.