Multifunctional antibacterial cotton fabrics based on a triazole-halamine-diethyl phosphite

Cotton fabrics has the disadvantages of flammability and breed bacteria, resulting in a risk to the life and health of the user. Hence, it is necessary to address the problems and also can create value-added products at the same time. In this work, a Triazole-halamine-diethyl phosphite (NABTA-DEP) was initially synthesized, followed by its application to cotton fabrics via the thiol-ene click reaction. This preparation process resulted in a multifunctional antibacterial cotton fabrics after chlorination (Cotton-NABTA-DEP-Cl). The results proved that NABTADEP was successfully synthesized and grafted onto cotton fabrics. Based on the effect of N-halamine and triazole structures, the antibacterial testing results showed that almost all of S. aureus and E. coli onto the modified cotton were inactivated at a concentration of 5 g/L. The modified cotton fabrics with 6.7 % grafting rate demonstrated satisfied thermal stability and the peak heat release rate (PHRR) and total heat release (THR) values decreased compared with raw cotton fabric. Additionally, loading of 3-mercaptopropyltriethoxysilane (MPTES) could enhance hydrophobicity, which decreased slightly after chlorination, water contact angle (WCA) at 3 s from 131 degrees to 127.5 degrees . The paper offers valuable insights for the development of multifunctional cotton fabrics and expands the application scope.