Antibacterial finishing of cotton by grafting N-halamine monomers

The graft copolymerization and antibacterial property of methacrylamide(MAM) on cotton fabrics were studied with sodium persulfate as the initiator.The influence of pad-dry-cure process(DPC) and impregnation process on the chlorine content of the cotton fabrics was tested,respectively.In terms of pad-dry-cure process the optimum conditions of graft copolymerization were as follows: initiator concentration 30 g/L,monomer concentration 90 g/L,take up 76%,reaction time 3 min,and curing temperature 150 ℃ and curing time 1.5 min.With respect to impregnation process the active chlorine from the optimum process was 0.52%.The active chlorine reached 1.11% when the concentrations of initiator and monomer were 30 g/L and 50 g/L,respectively,after 180 min of reaction in impregnation process.The morphology and property of the grafted fabrics were characterized using FT-IR,SEM,etc.The results confirmed that methacrylamide was grafted onto cotton in radical-initiated polymerization.Tests showed that the modified cotton fabric with active chlorine of 0.52% exhibited good antibacterial property.