One-pot preparation of cotton fibers with simultaneous enhanced durable flame-retardant and antibacterial properties by grafting copolymerized with vinyl monomers

The facile preparation and well-balanced of durable flame-retardant and multi-functional textiles have become the mainstreams in both academic and industrial communities. In this work, simultaneous enhanced durable flame-retardant and antibacterial properties of cotton fibers are prepared by grafting copolymerized with ammonium vinyl phosphonate (AMVP) and vinyl antibacterial monomers (PDMAPS or DMDAAC). Comparting to the two kinds of grafted cotton fabrics (COT/AMVP-PDMAPS and COT/AMVP-DMDAAC), it is found that COT/AMVP-DMDAAC not only displays excellent durable flame retardant, the limiting oxygen index (LOI) value of 33.8% and self-extinguishing during the vertical flammability test, but also exhibits good antibacterial activity against S. aureus and E. coli with antibacterial rates of 99.10% and 82.97%, after 50 standard washing cycles (SWC). The simultaneous enhancement of the durable flame-retardant and antibacterial properties can be attributed to the coordination effect of DMDAAC and AMVP components on grafted chain. The durable flame-retardant performance is originated from the dense carbon layer by phosphate of AMVP in condensed phase and the auxiliary low-energy of chlorine radical of DMDAAC in gas phase; the durable antibacterial property is caused by the ability to destroy bacterial cell wall of quaternary nitrogen in DMDAAC. Besides, the grafted cotton fabric also reached the wearability requirements and had a good application prospect. Based on these advantages, the grafted cotton fabric with well-balanced performance can be used for flame-retardant and multifunctional textiles to avoid fire and bacterial hazards from external environment.

Automated summary

This study improved the durable flame-retardant and antibacterial properties of cotton fibers using graft copolymerization. COT/AMVP-DMDAAC demonstrated excellent durable flame retardancy and antibacterial activity.