Antimicrobial Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Treated with an Aromatic N-Halamine Precursor, m-Aramid

A commercial m-aramid as N-halamine precursor has been coated onto polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fabric surface by pad-dry-curing process. The process is accomplished by padding the scoured PET fabric through the homogeneous m-aramid solution, drying at 150 degrees C for 3 min, and curing at 230 degrees C for 3 min. The PET surface coated with m-aramid was characterized using fourier transform infrared-attenuated total reflection (FTIR-ATR) spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). FTIR exhibits new bands in the 1645 and 1524 cm(-1) regions as characteristic of m-aramid bands, which indicate the PET fabric coated with m-aramid. XPS results show a distinguishable peak at binding energy 398.7 eV, which confirms the nitrogen atom of m-aramid on the PET surface. In addition, SEM image shows a layer of coating onto the PET surfaces, which demonstrates the presence of m-aramid coating on the surface of the PET. After exposure to dilute sodium hypochlorite solution, exhibition of antimicrobial activity on the coated PET is attributed to the conversion of N-halamine moieties from the N-halamine precursor. The chlorinated PET showed high antimicrobial activity against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. The chlorinated PET coated with 10% m-aramid exhibited about 6 log reductions of S. aureus and E. coli O157:H7 at a contact time of 10 and 30 min, respectively. Furthermore, the antimicrobial activity was durable and rechargeable after 25 wash cycles. (C) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 114: 3835-3840, 2009