Multi-functional Properties of Cotton Fabrics Treated with UV Absorber and N-halamine

Cotton fabrics have received more and more attentions due to their excellent properties such as hygroscopicity and comfortability. However, cotton fabrics also have some disadvantages such as easiness to wrinkle, poor ultraviolet resistance, and breeding bacteria. In this work, we used (3-(2,3-dihydroxypropyl)-5,5-dimethylimidazolidine-2,4-dione (abbreviated as hydantoin diol) and 2,4-dihydroxy diphenylketone (abbreviated as UV-O) as antibacterial agent and ultraviolet absorber, respectively. They were bonded to cotton fabrics with cross-linking agent 1,2,3,4-butanetetracarboxylic acid (BTCA) using the pad-dry-cure process to achieve multi-function by one step. The hydantoin diol/UV-O treated cotton fabrics were characterized by SEM and FT-IR. The UPF of the cotton increased from 4 to 36 and the wrinkle recovery angle increased from 112 degrees to 169 degrees after treatment. The addition of 2,4-dihydroxy diphenylketone could also improve the UV stability of N-Cl bonds on the coated cotton. The chlorinated hydantoin diol/UV-O cotton could inactivate 1.05x10(6) CFU/sample of S. aureus and 2.2x10(6)CFU/sample of E. coli O157:H7 with 5 min of contact completely.