The Antibacterial and Hydrophobic Cotton Fabrics Constructed by Multifunctional Polysiloxane and TiO2 Nanoparticles

Multifunctional polysiloxane was synthesized by introducing N-halamine compound precursor and stearyl methacrylate into polyhydromethylsiloxane, and characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Cotton fabrics with antibacterial and hydrophobic properties were prepared via a simple one-pot method with the synthesized polysiloxane and rutile TiO2 nanoparticles. The prepared cotton fabrics was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), FT-IR, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results demonstrated that prepared cotton fabrics could inactivate 3.9 × 106 cfu/sample of S. aureus and 4.8 × 106 cfu/sample of E. coli O157:H7 within 30 min of contact time, and the water contact angle of the treated fabrics was 133°. The prepared cotton fabrics also exhibited excellent stability against 50 abrasion cycles. After 50 washing cycles, 72% of the chlorine content on prepared cotton fabrics could be recovered after rechlorination. And the antibacterial hydrophobic cotton fabrics loaded with TiO2 possessed higher UV stability than cotton fabrics only treated with PTSAMS-Cl. Furthermore, the breaking strength of antibacterial hydrophobic cotton fabrics was decreased while the wrinkle resistance was improved.