Comparison of compounded fragrance and chitosan nanoparticles loaded with fragrance applied in cotton fabrics

The long-term fragrance releasing textiles hold considerable market share in textile consumption market. Then, encapsulating fragrance in nanoparticles could reduce the evaporation of volatile components and prolong the service life of aroma finished textiles. In this paper, chitosan (CS) with excellent biocompatibility and biodegradability was used to encapsulate rose fragrance to form nanoparticles via the ionic gelification. The mean diameter of spherical chitosan nanoparticles loaded with fragrance (RF-NPs) was 138 nm, zeta potential was 10.20 mV and polydispersity index (PDI) was 0.110. RF-NPs and compounded rose fragrance (RF) were applied to the cotton fabrics respectively without the adhesive agents. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) demonstrated that the number of the fragrance particles on the cotton fibres finished by RF-NPs was more than that finished by RF. Besides, after 20 cycles of washing, more RF-NPs still fixed on the surface of the cotton fabrics. Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FT-IR) proved that RF-NPs have been incorporated into the cotton fibres successfully. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis and ultraviolet (UV) spectrum analysis showed that the fragrance loss from the cotton fabrics finished by RF-NPs was obviously lower than that by RF after 20 washing cycles. The cotton fabrics finished by chitosan nanoparticles loaded with fragrance had better sustained release property, which provided a preparation method of the green aroma fnished textiles without the resin.