Non-leaching bactericidal cotton fabrics with well-preserved physical properties, no skin irritation and no toxicity

We developed an isocyanate group containing quaternary ammonium salt (IQAS) as a potential antimicrobial finishing agent that can be stored in a high purity form for more than a year in dry environments to permit convenient transportation and storage. Additionally, we report a facile and eco-friendly finishing technique to fabricate durable antimicrobial cotton fabrics using IQAS as an antimicrobial finishing agent by a dipping–padding–drying process. IQAS was bound onto the surface of cotton fabrics by a covalent bond to obtain a cotton fabric with excellent bactericidal activity, tearing strength, breaking elongation, bending rigidity, water vapor permeability, surface roughness and smoothness. The antimicrobial rates of these fabrics reached 92.2% and 98.5% against gram-negative bacterium Escherichia coli and gram-positive bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, respectively, even after 50 laundering cycles. These values are much higher than the reference antimicrobial rates of AAA class antimicrobial fabrics, as well as those of conventionally finished cotton fabrics, indicating that the IQAS finished cotton fabrics maintained excellent antimicrobial activity even after long-term repeated launderings. Moreover, the results indicate that the IQAS-treated cotton fabrics could improve the breaking strength (increased by 13.5% in the warp direction and 20.3% in the weft direction), the bursting strength (increased by 11.9%), the air permeability (increased by 12.6%) and the hydrophilicity compared to untreated cotton fabrics. Additionally, our non-leaching antimicrobial cotton fabrics treated with IQAS were non-toxic and showed no skin stimulation. Therefore, IQAS and the antimicrobial finishing technique reported here have great potential applications in antimicrobial fabrics used in hospitals, hotels and other susceptible situations.Graphical abstractAn isocyanate group containing quaternary ammonium salt that permits convenient transportation and storage was developed as a potential antimicrobial finishing agent to fabricate excellent antimicrobial cotton fabrics with well-preserved physical properties and security using a dipping–padding–drying process.

[1]  A. Gandini,et al.  Silane adsorption onto cellulose fibers: hydrolysis and condensation reactions. , 2005, Journal of colloid and interface science.

[2]  Yuan Gao,et al.  Recent Advances in Antimicrobial Treatments of Textiles , 2008 .

[3]  Abraham J Domb,et al.  Surface antimicrobial activity and biocompatibility of incorporated polyethylenimine nanoparticles. , 2008, Biomaterials.

[4]  Shaoyi Jiang,et al.  Ultralow‐Fouling, Functionalizable, and Hydrolyzable Zwitterionic Materials and Their Derivatives for Biological Applications , 2010, Advanced materials.

[5]  Barbara Simončič,et al.  Structures of Novel Antimicrobial Agents for Textiles - A Review , 2010 .

[6]  Shaojun Chen,et al.  Environmentally friendly antibacterial cotton textiles finished with siloxane sulfopropylbetaine. , 2011, ACS applied materials & interfaces.

[7]  C. M. Li,et al.  A polycationic antimicrobial and biocompatible hydrogel with microbe membrane suctioning ability. , 2011, Nature materials.

[8]  Shaoyi Jiang,et al.  Local and bulk hydration of zwitterionic glycine and its analogues through molecular simulations. , 2011, The journal of physical chemistry. B.

[9]  Somnath Ghosh,et al.  ZnO/Ag nanohybrid: synthesis, characterization, synergistic antibacterial activity and its mechanism , 2012 .

[10]  Shaoyi Jiang,et al.  Zwitterionic hydrogels implanted in mice resist the foreign-body reaction , 2013, Nature Biotechnology.

[11]  V. Dutschk,et al.  Time survivor study of Escherichia coli with polyhexamethylene biguanide on cotton , 2013 .

[12]  Shaojun Chen,et al.  Synergistic antibacterial mechanism and coating application of copper/titanium dioxide nanoparticles , 2014 .

[13]  Chen Chen,et al.  Preparation, characterization and antibacterial functionalization of cotton fabric using dimethyl diallyl ammonium chloride-allyl glycidyl ether-methacrylic/nano-ZnO composite , 2014, Chemical Engineering Journal.

[14]  E. Rybicki,et al.  A New Method of Finishing of Cotton Fabric by in Situ Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles , 2014 .

[15]  A. Varma,et al.  Guaiacol Hydrodeoxygenation over Platinum Catalyst: Reaction Pathways and Kinetics , 2015 .

[16]  Y. Liu,et al.  Self-assembled antibacterial coating by N-halamine polyelectrolytes on a cellulose substrate. , 2015, Journal of materials chemistry. B.

[17]  Chen Chen,et al.  Synthesis of Polymer Quaternary Ammonium Salt Containing Epoxy Group/Nano ZnO Long-Acting Antimicrobial Coating for Cotton Fabrics , 2015 .

[18]  Haytham M. M. Ibrahim,et al.  Characterization and antimicrobial properties of cotton fabric loaded with green synthesized silver nanoparticles. , 2016, Carbohydrate polymers.

[19]  D. Batory,et al.  Microwave-assisted TiO2: anatase formation on cotton and viscose fabric surfaces , 2016, Cellulose.

[20]  Jiangxin Wang,et al.  Durable Antibacterial and Nonfouling Cotton Textiles with Enhanced Comfort via Zwitterionic Sulfopropylbetaine Coating. , 2016, Small.

[21]  C. Fan,et al.  Antisuperbug Cotton Fabric with Excellent Laundering Durability. , 2016, ACS applied materials & interfaces.

[22]  Jaewoong Lee,et al.  Antibacterial cotton fibers treated with silver nanoparticles and quaternary ammonium salts. , 2016, Carbohydrate polymers.

[23]  Chunxia Wang,et al.  Cotton fabric with plasma pretreatment and ZnO/Carboxymethyl chitosan composite finishing for durable UV resistance and antibacterial property. , 2016, Carbohydrate polymers.

[24]  Wen-rong Hu,et al.  A promising application of chitosan quaternary ammonium salt to removal of Microcystis aeruginosa cells from drinking water. , 2017, The Science of the total environment.

[25]  A. Tehrani‐Bagha,et al.  Enhanced anti-microbial, anti-creasing and dye absorption properties of cotton fabric treated with Chitosan–Cyanuric Chloride hybrid , 2017, Cellulose.

[26]  Alideertu Dong,et al.  Chemical Insights into Antibacterial N-Halamines. , 2017, Chemical reviews.

[27]  J. Xin,et al.  Non-leaching and durable antibacterial textiles finished with reactive zwitterionic sulfobetaine , 2017 .

[28]  Jie Liang,et al.  Durable Antibacterial Cotton Fabrics Containing Stable Acyclic N-Halamine Groups , 2017 .

[29]  Peng Li,et al.  Dual-Functional Polyethylene Glycol-b-polyhexanide Surface Coating with in Vitro and in Vivo Antimicrobial and Antifouling Activities. , 2017, ACS applied materials & interfaces.

[30]  Xungai Wang,et al.  Durable superhydrophobic and antimicrobial cotton fabrics prepared by electrostatic assembly of polyhexamethylene biguanide and subsequent hydrophobization , 2018 .

[31]  C. Guo,et al.  Thermal, Waterproof, Breathable, and Antibacterial Cloth with a Nanoporous Structure. , 2018, ACS applied materials & interfaces.

[32]  T. Endo,et al.  Silver-based, single-sided antibacterial cotton fabrics with improved durability via an l-cysteine binding effect , 2018, Cellulose.

[33]  Yeqiang Tan,et al.  Enhanced wettability and moisture retention of cotton fabrics coated with self-suspended chitosan derivative , 2018, Cellulose.

[34]  Zaochuan Ge,et al.  New insights into synergistic antimicrobial and antifouling cotton fabrics via dually finished with quaternary ammonium salt and zwitterionic sulfobetaine , 2018 .

[35]  Hui Gao,et al.  Biodegradable Synthetic Antimicrobial with Aggregation-Induced Emissive Luminogens for Temporal Antibacterial Activity and Facile Bacteria Detection , 2018 .