Cationic Cotton Prepared with Hydrophobic Alkyl Chlorohydrin Quats: A New Fiber with New Properties

摘要

In an effort to elucidate new properties for cotton fabrics, cotton has been cationized with alkyl chlorohydrin quats in conjunction with the traditional cationization reagent 3-chloro-2-hydroxypropyltrimethylammonium. It has been found that cotton cationized with commercially available long chain quats and a mixture of a benzyl quat readily exhaust disperse dyes in water. Interestingly, the benzyl quat alone does not function as effective as the straight chain alkyl quats in exhausting disperse dyes. It is thought that a simple hydrophobic interaction between the disperse dyes and alkyl cationized cotton allows the remarkable ability for cotton to exhaust disperse dyes. This mechanism is in contrast to conventional cationic cotton that relies upon cationic charges to exhaust and fx anionic dyestuffs. Additionally, the cationized fabrics have been tested for antimicrobial efficacy utilizing AATCC TM100. Fabrics cationized with hydrophobic alkyl quats show much higher antimicrobial action than conventional cationic cotton prepared with 3-chloro-2-hydroxypropyltrimethylammonium.