Functional finishing of polyamide-6 fabrics with poly quaternary ammonium salt in presence nanometal oxides

This article introduce a novel, convenient and efficient finishing approach for the creation of quaternary ammonium groups (QAGs) into polyamide-6 (PA-6) macromolecules via polymerization of vinyl monomer is named methacryloyloxyethyl trimethyl ammonium chloride (MAETAC). The graft copolymerization reaction proceeds in the presence of nano-metal oxides TiO ₂ , ZnO and its hybrid mixture. The finishing method of PA-6 fabrics was carried out by using pad-dry-cure technique in presence K ₂ S ₂ O ₈ as initiator. The reaction mechanism was suggested. The surface topography was studied using Scan Electron Microscope (SEM) and Energy dispersive X-Ray (EDX). Evidence the chemical bonding between poly (MAETAC) and amide groups as well as the ionic interaction between nanoparticles (NPs) and carboxylic end groups in the chemical structure of the PA-6 fabrics were confirmed by FT-IR. The antimicrobial activity of the finished fabrics were evaluated against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Candida albicans. The achieved antimicrobial functions on the PA-6 fabrics are durable in repeated laundering processes. Even after laundering five times the PA-6 fabrics treated with QAs/Ti NPs could still provide 32%, 80.7%, 22.6%, and 60.5%, while PA fabrics treated with QAs/Zn or QAs/(Ti+Zn) showed excellent antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, E. coli, P. aeruginosa, and C. albicans before laundering, respectively. Also, it has been found that, PA-6 fabrics finished with the suggested method even after five washing cycles, displayed excellent ultraviolet protection effectiveness. The results of mechanical properties showed that this finishing approach had not destructive effect on the physical properties of the fabrics.