PREPARATION OF CITRONELLAL NANOCAPSULES AND STUDY OF ANTIBACTERIAL AND MOSQUITO REPELLENT PROPERTIES OF CITRONELLAL FUCTIONALIZED LYOCELL FIBER

The encapsulation of botanical compounds (such as citronellal) can be used to increase their efficiency and stability for functionalizing textile materials. In this study, the citronellal nanocapsules (CNC) with citronella oil as the core material and isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI) as the shell material were prepared and characterized. Factors, including core-to-shell ratio, single-phase ratios, emulsification time, as well as polymerization time and temperature, were investigated to determine the optimal process for the preparation of CNC. The average particle size of the prepared CNC was about several hundred nanometers, with uniform particle size distribution. Further, composite Lyocell fibers were prepared by the wet spinning process of co-blending CNC with Lyocell spinning stock. Evaluations were made of the biological activity of CNC towards mosquitoes, as well as E. coli and S. aureus, showing excellent mosquito repelling rate, of more than 90%, and an inhibition rate of 97.72% towards S. aureus.